Tuesday, 13 September 2011

What a Waste of Money

£13000 was spent by Eastleigh Lib Dems on their flawed housing "opinion survey".   Despite delivering their glossy leaflet with photos of a smiling "perfect" family and a message from smiling Lib Dem leader and Hedge End Councillor Keith House to all 53,000 households in the Borough, only 1786 valid replies were received.

A staggering 97% of residents treated this ill-judged exercise in political opportunism and buck passing with the contempt it deserved and have refused to give any kind of mandate to the Lib Dem plans for two huge development areas in and around Hedge End.

The challenge has been laid down to Cllr House now to engage in a genuine, bottom-up consultation to allow the people to have a real say in the future of Eastleigh's countryside.

Amazingly people living near Allington Lane would prefer  development to take place in Boorley Green, and Boorley Green residents voted mainly for houses to be built in Allington Lane.  Overall there was a small majority in favour of Boorley Green, but the response is so tiny the Lib Dems would look ridiculous if they used the figures to justify their plans.


864 (48.37%) of respondents gave option A (Allington Lane) as their preferred choice for development.
922 (51.62%) of respondents gave option B (Boorley Green) as their preferred choice for development.
In total 58 more respondents opted for Boorley Green than Allington Lane.
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3 comments:

  1. Stephen Slominski13 September 2011 at 12:37

    So that's it then.
    Boorley Green first, then Allington Lane.
    I mean both sites have been identified as suitable for sustainable development, residents have simply expressed a non binding preference(from those that were permitted and/or sufficiently interested).
    My understanding of the forthcoming planning shakeup is that if after development of Boorley commenced a developer subsequently came along with a plan for a sustainable development on the Allington Lane site, there is nothing to stop them and certainly not the views of a handful of residents.
    Or have I got that wrong?

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  2. Keith Day13 September 2011 at 16:05

    Certainly if the Lib Dems prefer Allington Lane, this result does not stop them. I can remember them saying in the Council chamber "This is not a referendum". Even a huge turnout and clear majority one way or another would not have been binding.

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  3. Jenny Schwausch13 September 2011 at 16:57

    Stephen is right and, no doubt, the Lib Dems have plans to develop both sites. The so called 'consultation' is just blatant window dressing

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