News: Chilbolton Community Land Trust announced

At the first of the Parish Council’s “informal” meetings, Martin Gossling outlined plans for a charitable community land trust which would own the planned 10 affordable homes. Villagers though, were keener on knowing what was inside the planning pre-application that had been sent to Test Valley Borough Council.

A number of questions on the pre-app were posed to Mr Gossling, some quite heated, and several people angrily left the meeting. He, however, said that he hadn’t been involved in the pre-application and he continued to explain how the land trust would work.

The new charity will be known as Chilbolton Community Land Trust (CCLT). The reason that it will cover only the planned affordable houses is that this allows it to apply for funding to cover the build cost. The land will be sold to CCLT by a landowner at agricultural rates.

He had already had “exploratory discussions [with] various landowners”. Responding to a question, he said that James Painter was the “key landowner” but that no contract was in place with him.

Mr Gossling was at pains to emphasis that “there [was] nothing laid down on paper that is a plan”. In fact depending on funding and build costs there could be between 8 and 12 affordable homes.

An application for registration of the new entity is with the Financial Conduct Authority. Initially there will be three trustees - Cllr Tony Ewer, Andrew Kent, and Cllr Sue Larcombe. Martin Gossling will act as secretary. They are tasked with getting CCLT up and running but will all step down eventually.

Everyone on the electoral roll within Chilbolton would be a member of CCLT, and Mr Gossling promised that the new trust would be “more transparent” than the Strategic Working Group. CCLT will not report to the Parish Council.

No grant can be applied for until a specific plot of land for development has been identified and secured by the Parish Council (CPC), who would also define the need for housing. CPC are contributing £10,000 to CCLT to fund setup costs.

In respect of the downsize houses, Mr Gossling said that there could be one or more community land trusts to hold them, or they could be open-market. What was certain though was that they wouldn’t be part of CCLT, and for the time being they would be the responsibility of the Parish Council. Responding to a question, he admitted that the downsize homes could be built before the affordable homes, given that applying for funding might be lengthy and convoluted.

When yet more questions were asked about the planning pre-application which Parish Council had lodged with TVBC, Cllr Ewer took the floor. He gave a timeline for the pre-app process, and the prospect of a likely response from TVBC in three months. Pressed again on making the pre-app public, he said that although the application had been made by the Parish Council, the documents were confidential. Therefore, he would need to seek permission from the Parish Council and James Painter to release them. He added that he felt that the documents would raise more questions than could be answered.

The next “informal” meeting is scheduled for 22 Feb 2025 at 10am in the Village Hall. Its topic it the Chilbolton 50-year “Vision”.

CCLT has already set up a website inviting villagers to join the CCLT Facebook group and with links for registering for social housing. Martin Gosling also said that he would put the slides displayed at the meeting on that site.