We were extremely pleased that over 50 visitors to our stand at the very successful Culture on the Common event signed our ‘attendance’ book. This provides very valuable evidence for the Plan Examiner who will be scrutinising our Plan - if all goes well - later in the year.

The current version of the Plan (Revision 8) can be seen in the latest news section of this website by clicking here and the website also gives you another avenue for feeding back your thoughts on the ‘Contact Us’ page.

The need for more affordable housing particularly for individuals and young families was frequently mentioned to us as was extra care housing and life time homes for an increasing older population who wish to remain within the community and this is recognised with the narrative of the Plan.

As Janet Martin identified in her April update we were thrown into some disarray by the nil allocation Hart awarded us in their Draft District Plan. As a group we remain anxious to give voice through the Neighbourhood Plan to the concerns that emerged during our consultations. These include protection of the green spaces in and around the parish and the on-going infrastructure issues such as health facilities, parking and traffic. These issues, one imagines, will only be exacerbated by the proposed Murrell Green development which metaphorically speaking came out of the magician's hat.

Revision 7 of the Neighbourhood Plan is available here

This version of the plan reflects the Steering Group recommendation that although the publication of a Draft Housing Numbers Policy from Hart District Council didn't allocate any numbers for Hartley Wintney we should go ahead with those sites already decided (see announcement of 2nd March) but in a slightly amended way. The Wintney Court proposed development site remains as already designated and the smaller sites become designated as assessed should the need arise for them to be developed. The group is very aware that this is an extremely complicated scenario and for this reason and to protect the village from being accused of not wanting to take it's share of developement, the Steering Group decided unanimously that to eliminate all housing numbers would not be a sensible step to take.

Welcome to this latest update. After the previous March article was published we were surprised by the publication of a Draft Housing Numbers Policy from Hart District Council which didn't allocate any numbers for Hartley Wintney.

Rather than greeting this with unalloyed joy we have been thrown into a quandary as Government requirements are for ever increasing development numbers. Hart, having no Local Plan in place and being delayed in submitting even a draft version, makes the District very vulnerable to decisions by the Govenment Planning Inspectorate in favour of applications whether or not they meet locally expressed wishes.