News: James Painter to submit planning application for 25 homes

In a letter to Cllr Julian Hudson, Chair of Chilbolton Parish Council, James Painter, who owns the land next to the Village Hall and Drove Road, has revealed that he intends to submit “an outline planning application for part of this land with details of the first 25 homes”.

At a specially-convened Parish Council meeting, Cllr Tony Ewer, Vice Chair of Chilbolton Parish Council said that he had been given permission to reveal it, and passed out copies of the letter to residents attending.

In it Mr Painter says that the detailed work for the homes “draws from the basis of the scheme from the pre-application which has been discussed for some time between myself and the Strategic Working Group”. He adds that he hopes to continue to work with the [Parish Council] on this scheme to identify the Community’s needs and how best we can help to achieve these".

Cllr David Hall said “This is a good, clear, courteous letter which gives us clarity on what they want to do”. He added that “this means it’s now a landowner-led development. It is no longer Parish Council-led”

Councillors agreed that the Community Development Committee should include James Painter’s outline planning application in their work. The CDC, should though, continue to assess the four sites in the Village.

Cllr David Hall pointed out that the Terms of Reference for the CDC approved at CPC’s July meeting still limited the group to considering only the site near Eastman’s Field.

He proposed that they should adopt the Terms of Reference agreed at the CDC meeting in July, with the exception of the promise of a referendum, to avoid contention. This proposal was put to a vote and was carried.

Councillors agreed that they should now begin discussions with Test Valley Borough Council and with Mr Painter. Cllr David Griffiths said “If there are discussions there should be a written record”.