chilbolton.news

On noticeboards around the village and in everyone’s postbox, it appeared without warning - a flyer calling all villagers to attend the Parish Council’s “informal meeting” on 22 Feb 2025.

At last, the Parish Council and the Strategic Working Group have released the minutes of their meetings.

In a surprise move, Chilbolton Parish Council (CPC) hijacked their own public meeting to announce that they had “paused” the planning pre-application they had lodged with Test Valley Borough Council (TVBC). It would be resubmitted with “modified” documents that would be publicly available.

At the first of the Parish Council’s “informal” meetings, Martin Gossling outlined plans for a charitable community land trust which would own the planned 10 affordable homes. Villagers though, were keener on knowing what was inside the planning pre-application that had been sent to Test Valley Borough Council.

A pre-application is a less formal way of discussing a proposed development with a local council. Although central government encourage local council to use pre-apps, unlike the formal planning application process, each council can use their own system for a pre-app.