Fareham Labour Party Demands Local Plan Rethink

Following the end of the consultation period Fareham Labour Party has released its submission demanding a rethink of the Draft Fareham Local Plan.

Labour’s Spokeperson Richard Ryan said “The ruling Conservative Party’s incompetence in not progressing the Welborne development quickly enough means green open spaces in Fareham have been put at risk. In our submission to the Draft Local Plan we have called for a reconsideration of the whole plan. We want to see the Welborne plan brought forward to be able to stop the destruction of many green spaces and strategic gaps in our urban areas.”

The full text of our submission appears below:

DRAFT LOCAL PLAN

 Fareham Constituency Labour Party wish to OBJECT to the whole Draft Local Plan as we consider it would be detrimental to living standards within the Borough. In our opinion the plan should be taken back and reconsidered as a priority.

We believe that this plan goes against the accepted concept that any major new housing development should be within the Welborne New Town. The policy of the Council up until the present has been that Welborne would safeguard our green open spaces and strategic gaps. The Draft Local Plan flies against this established policy and introduces the threat of development to many areas originally designated to be kept as open space.

Our submission is that the Draft Local Plan should be reconsidered to review how the Welborne development could be brought forward more quickly as a means of safeguarding green open areas within the Borough. We see that the government has just allocated £275,000 towards the next stage of Welborne. This should be used to help accelerate the Welborne development.

We cannot comment on each individual proposed development within the Draft Plan as we think the only way forward is for a full reconsideration. However our main views are:

  • Accelerate the Welborne New Town development
  • Seek more brownfield sites within Fareham’s urban area
  • No development on major greenfield sites
  • Any development should have the appropriate infrastructure
  • Seek to develop as little greenfield sites as possible

We believe the failure of the Council Leadership to implement the new Welborne Development on time means that our much needed open spaces in urban areas of the Borough are now under threat. Without a new look at the Draft Plan many greenfield sites in the Borough will be lost for ever.