Development Control

The Fleet & Church Crookham Society are often asked why the towns should be subject to any more development. It is easy to understand why people feel that further development is spoiling the towns, whilst the infrastructure, (transport, medical, education etc) simply cannot cope with the additional burden of more intensive development.

There is however, considerable pressure from central government to meet an acute shortage of new dwellings in the South East. It has been identified that this shortage is mainly for smaller dwellings of one & two beds. Hart District Council, is expected to provide a rolling five year plan to demonstrate that it is able to meet requirements for new housing numbers in the area.

In short, this means intensification of previously developed areas (“Brownfield”) in order not to extend the settlement boundaries by building on previously undeveloped areas (“Greenfield”). The wording of the policy encourages higher density developments of high quality. Regrettably, developers often choose to ignore the “quality” element is substitution for “quantity”. (For further information Planning Policy Statement No3 (Housing) - (PPS3 ) provides the full policy wording.

Often the effects of this policy of intensification is only realised when an application is submitted that adversely affects someone’s property directly. Whilst the developer will be expert in planning law and the planning system, many residents will be new to various procedures . For this reason the Society has created some guidance notes for residents facing the prospect of an unsuitable development scheme near them. These guidance notes are available as a 2.1Mb download here

For non members facing an unsuitable planning application near them, we suggest contacting their Parish and District Ward Councillors and attending the relevant Parish Planning meeting where the application will be discussed. Please note that no decision is made at the Parish Meeting. It is purely a recommendation for the benefit of the Planning Officers who in turn will provide their recommendation to the Planning Committee. The meeting dates are listed in the Forthcoming Events  Section of this site, but are generally alternate Monday evenings.

All Hart Planning Applications can also be viewed online by visiting www.ukplanning.com where full details and plans of the application can be downloaded. This facility also offers the opportunity to comment on applications online. (Please note that the UKplanning web site is a facility organised by an independent company and applications can take several days to appear on the web site)