News: James Painter polemic emailed to residents

At James Painter’s request, the Village Webmaster has distributed a document to subscribers which compares a 20-home development at Gravel Hill unfavourably with a 25-home development at Drove Road.

The email also includes comments from Cllr David Hall, Chair of Chilbolton Parish Council, saying “villagers should be aware of some of the inaccuracies and mistaken claims in the report and adverts [Mr Painter] has commissioned.”

The document follows the news that Mr Painter had the planning consultants behind his 75-home application draw up an “independent” report on Gravel Hill. The document’s content draws from that report, and his planning application.

Parish Council’s view

Cllr Hall particularly objects to Mr Painter’s assertion that Gravel Hill is the “current Parish Council chosen preferred option.” In the email Cllr Hall says:

Our main concern however is the completely false claims made about Gravel Hill and the Parish Council’s position on it. The Parish Council does not have a preferred site but wishes to understand village views and ensure our community has the full, unbiased facts ahead of the village vote.

An unfavourable comparison

The document compares two sites in the Village, both being options for residents to vote on this summer: a 25-home development at Drove Road and a 20-home development at Gravel Hill.

The question it raises, is “Which of these two sites provides the best long-term outcome for the Village, protects Chilbolton’s unique character and meets planning principles for future generations.”

Its answer to that question is overwhelmingly in favour of Drove Road.

Gravel Hill

The comments in the document about the Gravel Hill proposal are negative. Some of this stems from the fact that the proposal is in its early stages.

Whereas the pre-application for 25 homes at Drove Road was lodged in April 2025, Gravel Hill has only been actively pursued since March this year. Gravel Hill is still at the “visualisation” stage.

It is attacked for being on the periphery of the Village, and impacting the landscape - criticisms that have also been made of the Drove Road development.

It “requires a new access”, which is also true of Drove Road, “from either [a] narrow lane or a national speed limit highway.” The visualisation shows the site being accessed from Gravel Hill, which is a narrow lane.

Strangely, the document cites “sewerage contamination with ground water flooding challenges”, however the Parish Council have so far said that Gravel Hill would avoid connecting to mains sewerage by employing a package wastewater treatment plant.

The site is described as “part of large land parcel, potential for 100’s of homes”, repeating similar concerns raised in the past by supporters of Mr Painter’s development.

Drove Road

The Drove Road proposition that Mr Painter describes in the document is a hybrid of the planning pre-application made by the Parish Council in April 2025 and his current application for 75-homes.

It includes the 25 homes from the pre-app but adds “direct pedestrian access” on a path from the site, down through the fields, via Cart Lane to Village Street.

It is interesting that Mr Painter supports this smaller development, given that he has a live application for three times that amount. We await the planners’ decision on his 75-home plan, but could his backing of the 25-home proposal be preparing a fall-back position for him?

The description makes much of the fact that detailed planning has already been done in preparation of the 75-home application, saying that it is “more advanced, deliverable and ready to proceed.”

It refers to “directly accessible public open space and community facilities”. However, of the 247 people who have objected to the 75-home development, 39% specifically mentioned that the proposed community facilities were either unwanted or unjustified.

It also says of the site that it is “Part of a limited size land parcel unable to accommodate 100’s of further houses”. It’s not certain this will sooth residents’ fears when the plot in which it is situated has a current SHELAA submission for 150 homes. Of objectors to the 75-home plan, 44% specifically criticised that number of homes as over-development.

Backlash

Within minutes of the Village Webmaster email being delivered, a subscriber had responded describing the documents as “PR from a developer who stands to make a lot of money from Drove Road”, and warning that it “contains a number of misleading statements and factual errors.”

The subscriber said to the Webmaster that the errors “should be corrected and/or you should agree to publish similar opinion pieces from other interest groups.”

Village Webmaster and Village Magazine

The Village Webmaster is an email list of some 540 subscribers, 275 of whom are Chilbolton residents. Its usual fare is Diary Dates, and requests for help - this month it’s Stockbridge Ukraine who are running a Bric-a-Brac stall at Trout and About next Sunday.

It’s not clear how easily Mr Painter’s advancement of Drove Road and criticism of Gravel Hill sits alongside this.

Given the title of the document - “Chilbolton_A5_Village_Magazine_Advert_July_2026” - it seems as though we might also be seeing it alongside “Tabitha’s Corner” shortly.