Test Valley Local Plan condemned

The long awaited inspectors report on the Test Valley Borough Council local plan has finally been published. The report and the plan has been rubbished by Romsey and southern Test Valley councillors as"The people of Romsey and southern Test Valley being steam-rollered by the Government's pursuit of more houses at any cost and by a Test Valley Borough Council that rides rough-shod over the opinions of Romsey and North Baddesley residents."

The plan seeks to duplicate in southern Test Valley the failed planning policies used in and around Andover. For more than twelve years local Tories have gambled on a strategy of large scale housing development on two sites to the east of Andover supplying all the housing needs of northern Test Valley and generating economic growth across the borough. This gamble has failed. As far as Andover and northern Test Valley is concerned the latest version of the local plan is no more than a rework of the previous failed policies.

While the recent increase in affordable homes is to be applauded the brutal truth is the majority of homes developed are outside the price range of local residents and will continue to be so. The limited plans for sustainable housing development in rural areas will lead to more migration of our young people from the villages into the town or beyond. Meanwhile within Andover more and more residents will be stuck in inadequate private rented accommodation, or forced to move away, because of the council's failure to adopt a realistic sustainable housing policy.

Housing development on the scale seen and planned for Andover needs a massive increase in infrastructure - shops, transport, schools, jobs, medical and leisure facilities. The plan has very few concrete proposals to deliver these. Previous experience has shown they do not automatically follow housing development. If they haven't appeared during an economic boom they are unlikely to do so in a period of austerity. Developers will continue to cram as many homes as possible into every available space while minimising the number of affordable ones. Neither they nor Test Valley will deliver the jobs and other facilities the new and existing residents will want and need.

There is little to address the need to progress to a low carbon economy and preserve natural resources especially the rapidly diminishing water table in northern Test Valley. The plan acknowledges the over reliance on private cars but has nothing positive to say on improving public transport provisions. Similarly it admits a training and skills shortage in Andover leading to an over-reliance on low paid, low skill employment. But once again nothing positive is offered to resolve this.

The plan like it predecessors makes all right noises but offers little for Andover or its residents.