News: 75-home plan - Villagers get busy

Another well-attended meeting at the Village Hall this morning set villagers to work to help form the Parish Council’s response to James Painter’s 75 home proposal.

After an introduction by Cllr Neil Connor, Fiona Barrie gave advice on how to draft a personal response to the planning application. She had drafted a template of hints and tips.

The main work of the morning focussed on sharing ideas for responses. Tables were arranged around the room, each covering a relevant topic. Ideas were captured on Post-It notes. Tea and coffee, served by Sylvia Baker and Jill Parr, sustained the busy workers.

Team leaders summarised the main points from each topic. These will be shared with residents and will be included in the Parish Council’s response. The Parish Council now has a section on their website dedicated to the 75-home plan.

Cllr David Drew then explained how Test Valley Borough Council decide on planning applications, and what his role in the process is. He went through how the Planning Committee reaches its decision. He also took questions from the floor.

Deadlines

The formal deadline for personal responses is Friday 12 Dec 2025. However, planning staff at Test Valley Borough Council have said they will accept responses from the public up until the final deadline of 12 Jan 2026. The TVBC planning portal will also still be accessible. This is also what happened for applications at Test Valley Farm and the property formerly known as Fenstanton.

Fiona Barrie urged residents to complete their responses before Christmas, so that they weren’t forgotten before the final deadline.

Preparing a response

Fiona Barrie has drawn up a template for responding which covers in detail the points she referred to in her presentation.

She said material planning considerations included TVBC Local PLan 2016, Chilbolton’s Neighbourhood Development Plan and the Village Design Statement

In the Neighbourhood Development Plan, three policies are relevant:

HD1: only allows 1,2 or 3 bed dwellings – i.e. not 4 bed or greater. Also only allows for “about 20 homes” to be built in Chilbolton over the period up to 2029 and ONLY within the current settlement boundary.

HD5: requires parking for new houses to be - 1 bed x 2 spaces, 2 and 3 bed x 3 spaces and 4+ bed x 4 spaces. This application has fewer and does not comply.

HD4: rural character of the area, no new street lighting, car parking for residents and visitors catered for on plot, scale and density not have a detrimental impact

She warned against simply copying what was in the template, as that would reduce the value of an individual contribution.

A resident pointed out that responses should not be created using artificial intelligence, as these tools often introduce inaccuracies which devalue the quality.

Neil Connor said that taking pictures in the Village, for example of congestion or parked vehicles, could help in a response.

Fiona Barrie added that TVBC Councillors may not ever have visited Chilbolton, and wouldn’t necessarily come on a site visit as part of the decision-making process. Adding pictures to a response might assist them in understanding the problems facing the Village

Residents were asked to send a copy of their responses to Cllr Debbie Collis.

Can you help?

Martin Watson once again asked for volunteers with skills in any of the following areas:

• Planning
• Quantity Surveyor / Civil Engineer
• Highways / Transport
• Environment
• Water and Sewage Infrastructure

Fiona Barrie added that CPC could also do with help in:

• Proof-reading Parish Council submissions
• Logistics, for future leaflet drops

Do you need help?

If you are having difficulty preparing a response, Cherish Chilbolton, who leafleted the Village last week, will be happy to help. At the moment they can be contacted via Facebook.

Decision-making process

TVBC Councillor David Drew outlined how the process of considering the planning application would be handled within the Council.

Once the final deadline has been passed, planners place all the points made in responses into categories. If one hundred responses used the same words to describe an objection, that would count as one category.

Cllr Drew explained that this was why putting a large number of individually-drawn-up responses was important.

From these categories, planners then draw together a report which makes a recommendation to the Northern Area Planning Committee. Cllr Drew will be copied on this report. He is not a member of the Planning Committee.

In forming his view, he said “I’m for the best for Chilbolton. I’ll consider the Officer’s report, and present the case.”

The Planning Committee operates on a quasi-judicial basis: Councillors must decide cases fairly, be impartial between the parties, and are seen to be fair and impartial in order to avoid any appearance of bias.

Their decision is based on the rules and the facts that are presented to them, and is made on a democratic vote.

At the meeting where the decision is made, the following can speak, each for three minutes:

• Cllr Drew
• Chilbolton Parish Council
• Member(s) of the public - for a total of three minutes
• James Painter or his consultant

Cllr Drew said “the borough listens all the way through the [planning] process.” He warned though he couldn’t “guarantee that we can stop it.”

In particular, on infrastructure he said that much depends on what utility companies say. For example if Southern Water says that they will be able to connect the new development to the sewerage system, then sewerage would not be considered material as a planning issue.

He added that it didn’t mean that residents shouldn’t raise objections on sewerage.

He reminded the meeting that James Painter’s application was strictly about access arrangements, and that all other matters are “reserved” - in other words, to be described in detail and considered later in the process.

He pointed out that “secondary access”, such as is proposed via Eastman’s Field might often only be used for emergency vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians. Note that in Mr Painter’s application, the Transport Assessment says “A secondary access to the Site for all modes (pedestrians, cycles and vehicles) is proposed via Eastman’s Field.”

Next week’s meeting

The next meeting will take place on Saturday 6 Dec 2025 at 3pm in the Village Hall. Its purpose is for the Parish Council to present an outline response to the planning application and to hear residents’ views.

The Rt Hon Caroline Nokes MP will also be there to speak to the meeting. She discussed the planning application in an article for the Andover Advertiser yesterday.

James Painter has been invited to the meeting to speak. He has not yet responded to the Parish Council

Summary

The meeting lasted two and a half hours, but time passed quickly and it felt well-spent. Villagers were able to discuss their concerns and ideas with Councillors and each other. The work, focussed into topic areas, provided a rich seam of thoughts that will flow into CPC’s planning response, and residents’ comments alike.