Building Homes.

Building Homes

Last week's report in the Andover Advertiser over the plans of developers to build flats instead of a promised pub in Picket Twenty is yet another of a long line of promises made but then broken. Public spaces are being traded for profit. Yet alternative proposals such as a public garden or additional parking for the community facilities in place, which are inadequate, have been ignored. This is not a unique event in the sorry state of the development of Andover's Estates.

Developers have been allowed to build and build with little thought to providing infrastructure. The schools, health facilities and road improvements often follow years on after the housing has gone in. The doctor's surgery at Picket Twenty will never materialise. Meanwhile across Andover, roads and pavements are collapsing. Payment resurfacing in Hampshire proceeds at an exceptionally slow rate - yes once every 252 years. There is a pothole pandemic which Tory Hampshire council has lost control of.

We must rethink development and stop thinking houses and start thinking about homes and communities. We must work with councils to ensure infrastructure comes first, with the right homes in the right places. We need to make sure we plan adequate green space and a good quality of build. Within Test Valley, Andover is particularly poorly served, and new estates here do not compare well with those built in Romsey. Talk of a green belt in South Hampshire is all very well and should be supported but it should not result in overdevelopment around Andover. We need the necessary infrastructure to allow our communities and environment space to breathe and move. We need to future proof on a sustainable basis, and I cannot understand why new homes are not built with solar panels and electric vehicle charging points. It is a lot cheaper than retrofitting them. We need to do a lot better.