Winchester approves its Local Plan
At a meeting last night (Thurs 8) Winchester City Council approved the Core Strategy for its Local Plan, setting out the levels, and agreed areas, for development across the district in terms of housing, employment and social infrastructure, over the next 20 years.
The document sets out the agreed areas for 11,000 new homes to be built in the district over the next 20 years, which is on average 550 a year. 4,000 homes are to be provided in Winchester itself including 2,000 at Barton Farm, and 7,000 in the remainder of the District, including new communities of 3,000 homes at both North Whiteley and West of Waterlooville.
Cllr George Beckett Leader of the Council said,
The Council took difficult but important decisions last night. This plan is needed to provide the strategic direction for the development of the district over the next 20 years. It was important to put this in place without delay to ensure opportunist developments do not become a feature of the district, but instead we have a common vision for how the communities of the district should remain vibrant and sustainable for the future.”
The Council’s decision means the Core Strategy will now be published for formal comments to be made on the ‘soundness’ of the document. The opportunity to make these comments will be available for a six week period from mid January, the Council will then summarise the comments and send them to the Planning Inspectorate.
It is expected that the public examination by the Planning Inspector will take place in the summer of 2012.
As this is a joint document with the South Downs National Park it has to also be approved by their committee. The meeting to determine this will take place week beginning 12 December.