News: CDC approves new terms of reference

Fans of high drama would have been disappointed at last night’s Community Development Committe Meeting. What promised to be a flashpoint - redrafting their terms of reference - turned into a commitment to common cause.

A cleverly drafted agenda first had committee members reporting on significant progress. Then it came to agreeing the TOR. There were minor amendments, followed by a unanimous vote to send it to the Parish Council for approval.

Contents

Neil Connor, who chaired the meeting, opened by welcoming the more that thirty villager who attended. He said “We want engagement. We want to be community-led. But most of all we want to get on and do something.”

Update on work streams

  • The housing needs team are planning to conduct focus groups to understand what sort of properties the “downsize” homes should be. They ask residents who are on the list for these properties or are thinking of joining it, to contact them through the Chilbolton Parish Clerk (chilbolton.clerk@hotmail.co.uk) to become involved
  • The housing mix team have been busy talking to property experts with the aim of determining likely plot sizes, and therefore the housing density. For the smaller houses a range of 10 to 20 homes per hectare is possible. The more-spacious homes planned would occupy more, with 15 homes needing 1.6 hectares (4 acres)
  • On site options it was explained that both SHELAA and non-SHELAA sites would be considered and that the assessment would be independent, and its results would be made public. The sites to be reviewed would be land near Eastman’s Field (SHELAA 389), land southwest of Martin’s Lane (SHELAA 431), Bett’s Farm (SHELAA 484) and land at the corner of Gravel Hill and Martins Lane. Two SHELAA sites had been eliminated from the review - Thirt Way (SHELAA 287) and Gravel Hill Buildings (SHELAA 465) - because they were too small. Note: maps for the SHELAA sites can be viewed at TVBC Local Plan appendix 2 on pages 91 to 95
  • Water and sewerage have been bolstering their team with residents who have relevant experience. They are still looking for more team members with knowledge and insight of this area. Given the critical nature of water and sewerage, they are keen to get Lawrence Gosden, CEO of Southern Water, to come and talk to residents of Chilbolton. They also noted that the Cunliffe report, which proposes a super-regulator to replace Ofwat, the Environment Agency, the Drinking Water Inspectorate and Natural England, represents an opportunity for this team
  • High-level business case: input from the site selection team, landowners, builders and other parties will inform decision-making. Discussions with landowners would ascertain will they they would be willing to work with CDC and their plan to build community-led housing. Doing this would lead to a refined list of sites
  • Heating and power is currently a one-man team. There are two issues - providing power to the new homes and building infrastructure to ensure reliable supply to existing homes in the Village. There are electricity three feeds into Chilbolton, but all systems across the South East are at, or near, full capacity. Solar panels on roofs, heat pumps, wind turbines and small, local solar farms could all be part of the solution, but there is a need to assess residents’ views on what would work best
  • Communications and public engagement: its is clear that CDC, CPC and CCLT should adopt a common approach to sharing information and involving people in the Village. This could include focus groups, workshops, and collating frequently-asked questions. It is particularly important to reach out to younger people in the Village

Neil Connor said that a new workstream was proposed: Martin Watson will lead work to create an overall plan which would define outputs for each workstream and co-ordinate activities. Martin Watson said that the programme would be a “living document” and would be publicly shared.

CCLT

Discussions have also been held with CCLT, which quickly confirmed a shared understanding of how they might work together. For the affordable homes it was probable that the housing style would be terraced rather than detached dwellings. They would be rental homes, and the likelihood is that there would probably be a need for more than 10 homes.

Terms of Reference

Neil Connor said that version 4.0 of the terms of reference was a “compromise”, but which allowed CDC to “evaluate all options”. The secretary, Peter Collis, suggested two amendments: striking out “ensure the CDC is unbiased”, because is set the wrong tone, and that where references to “long term plan” and “vision” were made, that there should be a reference to the specific documents.

Peter Collis said that this, version 4.1, would be the proposed version to go Chilbolton Parish Council for their approval. Martin Watson proposed and Cllr Sue Larcombe seconded. There was a show of hands and the proposal was agreed unanimously.

Neil Connor then said “Let’s focus on the work”.

Questions from the public

  • A resident asked whether access to the site near Eastman’s Field was still planned to be from the upper part of Drove Road, as announced at the village meeting on 5 Dec 2024. Cllr Julian Hudson said that it would be better to use an alternative route through the Village, and Neil Connor confirmed that access routes would be part of the assessment. Mark Husson remarked that an estimate had been made some years ago of the cost of surfacing the upper part of Drove Road. This amounted to £2.5m, which would probably be £4m now
  • A resident observed that one of the changes to CDC terms of reference had replaced “public vote or referendum” with “meaningful engagement”. Neil Connor said that there would be many decision points during the process and that there would be many sorts of engagement. Fiona Barrie confirmed that “public vote or referendum” was the wording in version 4.1, which had been approved by CDC earlier in the meeting
  • There was discussion about the various routes through the Village which could be used to access the site near Eastman’s Field. Residents’ concerns were noted and Neil Connor confirmed that all routes would be considered in the evaluation matrix. Martin Watson said that the assessment would be publicly available and comments would be welcomed
  • A resident asked “How can we contact CDC?”. Cllr Sue Larcombe said that the best way was by emailing the Chilbolton Parish Clerk (chilbolton.clerk@hotmail.co.uk)
  • A resident asked whether there wasn’t the risk that the landowner would put yet more houses on the site. Cllr David Hall said “We need to understand what landowners want to do over time”. Other CDC members agreed, saying that it was better to have a conversation with landowners
  • A resident, who previously was a member of SWG, asked whether the Working Group Meetings would be conducted publicly. Mark Husson said that much of the work would be conducted by telephone, email and video link, which wouldn’t be practical as a public meeting. Fiona Barrie said that all the documentation would be publicly available. Another resident, who also had been a member of SWG, stood up to thank CDC members for their openness and observed that this was the first time in two to three years that this information was being shared with the community
  • A resident suggested that, where possible, Working Group reports be circulated with the agenda pack
  • A resident asked “Has anything been received in response to the pre-application?” Cllr Julian Hudson replied “Nothing to report yet”. Cllr Sue Larcombe said that the project response time was four months, which would be anytime soon.

Summary

This week the Parish has been treated to two well-managed and productive meetings. First at the planning committee we saw positive steps taken to respond to TVBC’s Local Plan. At the CDC meeting we saw evidence of solid progress and commitment from its members in the task of turning plans into reality.

At both meetings, villagers were encouraged to ask questions and share their views. In return they received substantive replies where that was possible. This perhaps, is what “meaningful engagement” is actually about.