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Nick gets YOUR questions answered!
Getting Infrastructure FIRST
The new road link from Burnetts Lane through to the Bubb Lane will be open this summer, writes Cllr Nick Couldrey.
This will mean that traffic to and from the Business Park can use this road instead of Burnetts Lane, and all future construction traffic can avoid Botley Road and travelling through Fair Oak and Horton Heath.
The “spine road” from the new Burnetts Lane roundabout up to Allington Lane will be built between this summer and the summer of 2023, with an improved Allington Lane junction with Fair Oak Road.
This road will run to the west side of the solar park and be completed and opened before ANY new homes are completed.
It means traffic that currently clogs up Horton Heath and the centre of Fair Oak travelling from the M27 to and from Eastleigh will be able to avoid our villages entirely.
This again is only possible because the Council, not a volume housebuilder, is taking forward the project.
Cllr Nick Couldrey writes
One of my jobs as your local councillor is to take up questions raised by local residents and get answers.
Some of this is holding the Council to account. Some is raising concerns and ideas from residents. And some is finding answers to problems that would otherwise get left unresolved.
The “One Horton Heath” project is a case in point. The Council has stepped in where the private sector failed.
We can get them to listen to local people, get what’s needed for our community, and tackle some of our wider concerns about traffic and local facilities.
13 acres of new Parkland and rewilding
The massive new public open space and parkland next to Allington Lane on Former farmland is set to be finished in weeks and open to the public.
The northern part of the site at Quobleigh, close to the new Bargate development, is to be returned to nature with 1,000 trees and 30,000 shrubs planted.
The majority of the new site will be a new parkland to serve the existing and future new community.
Opening the parkland first is one of the benefits of the Council leading the project. National big builders usually provide parks and open spaces last!
Nick gets a result to axe the 6-storey block
When detailed plans for the first phase of One Horton Heath were launched, much of what was proposed looked really good, with sympathetic development close to Burnetts Lane and a strong focus on public green space, natural water features and quality design. But Cllr Nick COuldrey was NOT impressed with a 6-storey block of apartments close to the new roundabout. Nick wrote to the Council Leader - and this section of the plan is to be withdrawn and replaced with a much more appropriate design.
Cllr Nick Couldrey on YOUR side and getting results for YOU
Trees, trees, trees!
Thousands of new trees will be planted as part of the One Horton Heath project, many grown at the Fir Tree Lane tree nursery your Lib Dem councillors got the Council to establish.
More than that, the proposals at One Horton Heath respect traditional field patterns meaning almost all trees and field boundaries will be respected to keep hundreds of mature trees.
Protecting our Countryside
The best way for your local councillors to help the Council protect the green country-side gaps between our villages is to make sure the total number of homes built in our area meets national targets. If this does not happen, developers put in planning applications on other sites and win appeals - it happens all over the south-east.
Eastleigh Borough Council has a good record on appeals as it has (just!) managed to meet the tough targets set by the Government. All these are backed by Conservative MPs, despite their protests whenever any new development comes forward in their constituencies!
Across our Borough, 10,482 homes have been built in the last 20 years, against government targets for 10,161. Looking to the future the Council expects to meet but not exceed targets and the governments local inspector is signing off the Council’s Local Plan to do exactly that.
New Cycleway
Your Lib Dem councillors are promoting cycling as part of the One Horton Heath package, both for the existing and new community. One link will run all the way from Chalcroft to Eastleigh so that it’s quicker to cycle than drive. A new section of cycleway alongside Allington Lane is now largely complete.
Welcome!
If you are new to the area, you’ll find FOCUS popping through your door with local news all year every year. Only the Lib Dems keep in touch this way. You’ll discover the Conservatives and Labour only show up when they want your votes!
Q&A on One Horton Heath
Why is the Council developing the One Horton heath project?
The private sector got planning permission for 1400 homes and secondary school but then claimed the development would not be viable, meaning it would not deliver the necessary infrastructure and affordable housing. The County Council then decided to build the new secondary school at Hedge End. The Council buying the land and building the project means infrastructure will be delivered on time.
What about affordable housing?
This will be provided with 1/3 of the homes being “Council” houses to the same design standard as the houses for sale. About 1/4 of the new homes will be market rent too, with the option of future purchase, ideal for local young people.
Why is this now 2,500 houses?
The land that would have been taken by the secondary school, and small parcels of adjacent land have been brought into the scheme to improve it. Over half the land will be green space and countryside.
What about schools?
There will be a new primary school on site. The County Council expect secondary school pupils to go to Deer Park School.