Analysis: The Battle for Braishfield

Two villages, different in many ways, but linked by very similar stories. The Braishfield villagers’ fight over the last year is a story of determination and ingenuity, one which has lessons for Chilbolton.

Cllr Sally Yalden is a “triple hatter”: not only does she sit on Braishfield Parish Council, she is also a Test Valley Borough Councillor and a Hampshire County Councillor.

This week, she met with the Chair of Chilbolton Parish Council, David Hall, to swap experiences and discuss tactics for fending off unwanted development in the two Villages.

chilbolton.news was there, listening with interest. This is the story of the battle for Braishfield.

Braishfield village

Braishfield, like Chilbolton, is graded as a Tier 3 village. They have a primary school, two pubs. a village hall and the Braishfield Pantry - a community shop and cafe. There are 320 homes with some 690 residents.

There is also All Saints’ Church, a United Reformed Church and a recreation ground. The village is next to the Sir Harold Hillier Arboretum.

TVBC’s draft Local Plan

The call to arms was sounded in June 2025: Test Valley Borough Council announced a draft plan to meet new, increased housing targets set by the Government which would see 11,210 new homes around the borough.

Braishfield residents were surprised and concerned to see that the plan had allocated a development of 54 homes in the heart of their Village.

Described as “SA26 Land West of Braishfield Road, Braishfield”, it was located on a 2.5 hectare (6.2 acre) site opposite the village’s primary school.

What was more worrying was that the site was part of a larger portion of land covering both sides of Braishfield Road amounting to 9.29 hectares (22.96 acres) which had been included in TVBC’s SHELAA process. The total housing capacity was estimated at 160 dwellings.

A village meeting in July 2025, convened by Braishfield Parish Council, was attended by over a hundred residents.

They agreed to contact the Rt Hon Caroline Nokes MP, and invite her to a future public meeting.

At this point, the Parish Council didn’t even know who owned the land.

Developer reveals plan

Concerns were raised even higher when Bargate Homes, a property development company based in Fair Oak, indicated their intention to build on the site.

Community engagement

Bargate circulated a consultation leaflet to residents, but only those within 500 metres of the site. The parish council distributed the leaflet to all other homes in Braishfield, and urged residents to complete it.

In October 2025, the Parish Council held a closed meeting with Bargate Homes, a meeting which councillors were very unhappy with - they felt the developers were arrogant, and hadn’t listened to them.

Bargate Homes, however, were satisfied and would later cite this meeting and their leaflets as evidence of engagement with the community.

The result of the consultation was, out of 112 responses: 101 objected, 10 were neutral and 1 was supportive.

Bargate’s take on the result was:

The engagement with the community has revealed some common issues that were raised by respondents around impacts on highways, access, flooding, and drainage where further assessments and studies will be conducted to mitigate any issues. All additional issues raised will be considered and acted upon.

Councillors also met with the Head of Planning Policy at TVBC and expressed their concern at how little they had been involved in the process of allocating 54 homes to their village in the Local Plan.

A consultant and a fighting fund

After a second public meeting, Braishfield Parish Council resolved to engage a planning consultant, with an initial budget of £3,000. The consultant would write the council’s objection once the Bargate planning application had been received.

They also set up a fighting fund for community donations, with the ambitious aim of raising £10,000.

In a message to villagers, the council described the Bargate plan for 60 homes - a 19% increase in the village - as “our biggest and most imminent threat”, with a promise “to fight this to the best of our abilities”.

Planning Application

Just before Christmas 2025, Bargate Homes lodged their outline planning application with all matters apart from access reserved. It covered a site of 4.57 hectares (11.29 acres), including the land identified by TVBC in their Draft Local Plan. The land comprised four paddocks, used for horse grazing.

The application was for a mix of house sizes and included 24 affordable homes.

The Parish Council quickly mobilised. Villagers were given advice on how to object to the plans, and public meetings were scheduled. They emphasised the importance of identifying “material planning considerations”, and highlighted the importance of individual, rather than pro-forma objections.

Meanwhile the fighting fund continued to grow, with £11,120 raised from residents and a further £3,000 donated by the Braishfield Village Association.

Reaction to the plan

By the time the TVBC Planning Case Officer sat down to write her report, she was in receipt of 329 letters of objection from residents, together with an objection from the Parish Council supported by a report from planning consultants Feria Urbanism.

The Parish Council said that the proposed development was outside the settlement boundary and that is would be “unavoidably car dependent”. Nor would it fit in with Braishfield’s dispersed settlement - an “estate” of 60 dwellings would have “an urbanising effect”.

Public comments endorsed the Council’s comments and criticised the impact on wildlife,increased traffic and parking, the risk of flooding and the adverse impact on surrounding properties.

Called to Committee

At their June 2026 meeting, Braishfield Parish Councillors were confident that the proposal would not be put before the Southern Area Planning Committee, before July and possibly even later.

Therefore it was a surprise when it appeared on the agenda for SAPC’s meeting on 30 Jun 2026. No-one was more surprised that Cllr Sally Yalden - she would be on holiday at the time. She resolved however that she would still be heard, and penned a statement to be read out by the Chair of the Committee.

Planning Committee meeting

It was standing room only at Crosfield Hall in Romsey, with Braishfield residents eager to support their speakers.

The Case Officer’s briefing to the Planning Committee revealed that a further 88 objections had been received since the determination date bringing the total to 437.

Nonetheless, she recommended approval of the application. She referred to TVBC’s failure to have a five-year housing supply, and that therefore the balance was “tilted” in favour of approving new homes.

Village representatives

Richard Brazier,Chair of Braishfield Parish Council’s Planning, addressed the meeting. He spoke of the “unprecedented change” that the proposal would mean for the Village and how “out of character” the new housing would be. He overran his allotted three minutes, causing the Chair of the meeting, Cllr Mark Cooper to ask him to stop.

When he did stop, he was loudly applauded by members of the public. It only stopped when Cllr Cooper testily remarked “I’m sorry, this is a planning meeting, not a football match.”

Cllr Brazier was followed by Hazel Southam. She said that the development would result in a loss of identity for her village. Miss Southam handed over to fourteen-year-old Sophie Coughlin who said “You are taking away the rural future of the village before we grow up.” They too were loudly applauded.

Developer agent

Aaron Smith, agent for Bargate Homes spoke on their behalf. When he said that they engaged with village residents, members of the public were vocal in their disagreement.

Mr Smith said the master plan included in the documents was illustrative only and could be changed. Access, the subject of the outline application, had already been agreed by Hampshire Highways. He stated that “There are no strong reasons for refusing the development, due to public benefits which are set out in the officer’s reports.”

Councillors’ debate

When it was Borough Councillors’ turn to speak, Cllr Yalden’s statement was read out by the Chair.

She said that the planning officers’ definition of “sustainable” was a weak one. They claimed that new residents would make the village more sustainable by using the existing facilities such as the shop, and the pubs.

The crucial point was that if the definition was accepted and the application approved, it would be used by future planning applications in villages.

The bus service to the village was “one bus out in the morning and one bus back in the afternoon.” It was not an alternative to a car, and villagers had to drive daily “for jobs, schools and healthcare.”

She respectfully asked members to refuse the application.

Other Councillors spoke, but none opposed the plan. Cllr Sandra Gidley summarised their discomfort. She said “This application shows how impotent planning committees are. Years ago we would have turned this down.” She warned that at an appeal, a Planning Inspector could impose conditions that “villagers would like even less.”

Cllr Gidley finished by saying “Our hands are completely tied. There’s no option but to pass this.”

When it came to the vote, the application was unanimously approved. This was greeted by ironic applause from members of the public and some booing.

Reaction in Braishfield

There was a brooding sense in the village that they had been unfairly treated. Cllr Richard Brazier, who had been cheered so loudly by residents, wrote a piece for the village magazine voicing that sense of injustice.

He criticized the way the meeting had been handled, but his main concern was the apparent lack of engagement by the Councillors present, and how little they seemed to have taken account of the representations that had been made by villagers. He asked “Does each District Cllr and the [Planning Officers] appreciate the destruction of our Village in its current form will be their lasting LEGACY. Do they really care?”

25 members of the public attended the Parish Council meeting just days after the Planning Committee decision. They shared their Councillors’ disappointment at how the issue had been handled by the Committee and the Planning Officer.

The meeting discussed the possibility of engaging a barrister and considering a judicial review. Those there supported fighting on against the development, including a new round of fund-raising.

A plan of action

At an Extraordinary Parish Council meeting later that month, Councillors agreed a bold plan of action:

• They would write to the Rt Hon Caroline Nokes MP, asking her to have the Secretary of State “call in” the planning application. This would mean that the Secretary of State would rule on whether the planning application would be approved. There are no statutory constraints on the use of this power, nor time limits for time taken to consider whether a call in should be made
• Work would continue to develop the village Neighbourhood Development Plan with a view to submitting it to TVBC in Spring 2027
• Every home in the village would be leafleted, opening a second round of donations to the fighting fund
• If enough was raised, they would instruct a barrister to provide advice on whether there were grounds to challenge the decision via a Judicial Review and, if there were, to send a Pre-Action Protocol letter to TVBC setting out the case. This was likely to cost some £13,000.

Current status

So far, the second round of donations has raised £11,260 and £5,560 has been spent engaging solicitors.

Caroline Nokes has written to the Secretary of State requesting that the Bargate application is called in. That request is currently under consideration, but no statutory move has yet been made to prevent TVBC from giving the development planning permission.

What happens next

At a public meeting of residents, Cllr Yalden gave a presentation summarising the events of the last year and identifying the development pressure on Braishfield.

She pointed out that TVBC’s latest monitoring report showed that, as at 1 Apr 2025, 1,711 dwellings had planning permission within Test Valley but had not yet been built.

She also explained, if permission were granted, what the next steps would be:

Reserved matters planning application

If granted permission, Bargate Homes will produce a “reserved matters” planning application. This will flesh out the details of the application that has been approved, specifying in detail the layout of the new homes, their architecture and the landscaping around them.

For their part, Bargate have said to TVBC that they are willing to engage with the Parish Council before submitting the reserved matters application.

It will be of little solace to Braishfield Parish Council and their villagers to learn that, under new rules which come into effect on 31 Oct 2026, decisions on this new application will be in the hands solely of TVBC planners, with no recourse to a Planning Committee of Borough Councillors.

Lessons for other villages

We asked Cllrs Hall and Yalden for their views on how this planning application has been dealt with so far.

Cllr David Hall said “It’s really inspiring to see how the Braishfield community have responded to a plan which is clearly unsuitable for their village. TVBC’s planning committee just rolled over but fortunately the Parish Council, Sally Yalden (the Borough Councillor) and Caroline Nokes (our shared MP) have all worked together to challenge this with the Planning Inspectorate. Chilbolton can learn from what they have achieved.

“Local communities know best about how our villages should develop and how best to provide affordable housing to address the needs of local people. Government policy is moving in the same direction; TVBC now need to step up and play their part.”

Cllr Yalden summarised by saying “Rural villages are increasingly being overwhelmed by speculative planning applications. Having experienced this first-hand in my own village of Braishfield, I know the enormous strain these planning battles place on local communities.

“We shouldn’t have a planning system that leaves villages fighting one development after another. The answer to the housing crisis isn’t to give developers free rein to build what they want, where they want. It should be about delivering the homes people actually need, in the right places, with the infrastructure to support them and communities having a genuine say in shaping their future.”