‘Significant wasted opportunity’ – CPRE Hampshire on the absence of South Hampshire Green Belt in Fareham Local Plan Supplement

CPRE Hampshire has submitted its response to Fareham Borough Council’s Local Plan 2036 Supplement (Regulation 18) consultation. The local countryside charity is disappointed that there is no mention of a potential South Hampshire Green Belt and no real move away from car dependency in planning the location of new housing developments.

It was agreed that a new Green Belt would be investigated by all South Hampshire authorities and it was included in Fareham Borough Council’s previous consultation in July 2019.

Caroline Dibden, CPRE Hampshire Vice Chair and leader of the South Hampshire District Group, says: “We have long campaigned for an area of development restraint in order to encourage urban regeneration and prevent sprawl.

We consider the exclusion of a new Green Belt to be a significant wasted opportunity, as the National Planning Policy Framework allows local authorities to designate Green Belt as part of the Local Plan process. We are therefore objecting to the Supplement on this basis.”

Caroline Dibden adds: “CPRE Hampshire believes that one of the most fundamental ways of combating the likelihood of adverse climate change, is to plan development where it can use better public transport and be less reliant on the car.

The aspirations in the Supplement are more about how development can respond to climate change, and rather less about how spatial planning of future development can help prevent it. We consider that this is another missed opportunity.

It must be a fundamental tenet of the Fareham Local Plan that no development should be permitted that relies on the car as its main means of access. The principles of development and transport as set out by Transport for New Homes* should be followed.

Nothing less than a drastic change to spatial strategy and a move away from South Hampshire’s historic pattern of sprawling suburbs will enable any meaningful contribution to the fight against adverse climate change. We owe it to future generations to do our utmost to shift patterns of behaviour that have become entrenched with the use of the private car.”

CPRE Hampshire would also like to see Fareham Borough Council use the most up-to-date Local Housing Need (LHN) figures. The 2016-based population projections show a decrease in Fareham compared with the 2014-based projections currently in use. The 2018-based population projections show a similar trend at a countrywide level, indicating that Fareham’s Local Housing Need might drop. The 2018-based figures are expected in Spring 2020.

View CPRE Hampshire’s comments on the Fareham Local Plan Supplement consultation and its campaign for a Green Belt for South Hampshire.