MP Mims Davies has said Eastleigh council’s initial proposals for a Local Plan are poor quality and will do little to protect residents from hostile and damaging developments.
The council has fallen behind nearly every other authority in Hampshire on this vital issue, and this is allowing developers a free rein in the constituency to apply for development in inappropriate places - causing more traffic congestion and air pollution.
“Sadly for Eastleigh residents the council failed to create a strong enough plan last time and it was rejected by the Planning Inspector for being unsatisfactory. It appears the authority hasn’t learnt from this mistake and is going to do the same thing again and play with the quality of life of residents threatened with overdevelopment,” said Mims.
“This new plan, now out for consultation, is quite frankly very weak and is, in my view, likely to fail yet again - something that is completely unacceptable.
“Many of the issues I have continually highlighted are recognised but not addressed by the document. We cannot have wholesale house building while our infrastructure is already under so much strain. The council speaks about air pollution being a problem but they fail to provide a robust solution in their document. The document also has extremely alarming suggestions that our villages will lose their identities and will merge together so that our beautiful area will become just a sprawling suburb of Southampton.
“Eastleigh Borough Council must do more to work with constituents, local parish councils and business to produce a proper Local Plan that will protect our area from these hostile developments that we simply do not have the infrastructure for. If they cannot even be bothered to come to talk to residents in Bursledon about this shambles then yet again they will just be burying their heads in the sand.
“The appalling result of this failure is that developers have been securing permission to build thousands of houses. Anyone concerned about this should be making their feelings known during the consultation.”