News: Parish Council to discuss final objection

Chilbolton Parish Council has published a draft of what could be its final objection to the 75-home development, before Test Valley Borough Council makes its decision.

They will discuss it at their meeting in the Village Hall on Wednesday 6 May 2026 at 6pm: Villagers are encouraged to join the meeting to give their views and ask questions.

The objection covers issues that the Parish Council says have not been addressed in the planning application, with specific reference to the most recent documents submitted by James Painter’s consultants. These include:

• Highway safety and significant increase in traffic
• An overloaded water and sewerage system in the Village being added to by waste from 75 houses
• Increased rainwater runoff, causing greater flood risk in Village Street, and harm to the Conservation Area and the river

In addition, the objection acknowledges the new response from the Observatory, saying

CPC notes and supports Chilbolton Observatory[’s] most recent submission of the 29th April where it concludes ‘Currently we do not support the applicant on the grounds that it threatens to extinguish a unique UK science and technology capability.’

There are three annexes, with detailed criticism of the plan, covering:

• Highways and transport, which includes analysis of the Walking, Cycling and Horse-riding Assessment Report, and “questionable” trip generation assumptions
• Environment, Landscape, Ecology and Arboriculture which highlights the presence of protected species, and inadequate surveying for them
• Water and Sewerage, including images of the impact of tankers on Village Street during flooding, an analysis of the runoff risk from the site, and Southern Water “spill events” during heavy rainfall

Aside from concisely expressing CPC’s concerns over the development, the document will surely also act as an aide memoire for Villagers as they compile their own final responses.