Local Plan - New Consultation

Happy Families or Hitch-Hikers Guide?

"'But Mr Dent, the plans have been available in the local planning office for the last nine months.'
'... You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them had you?  I mean like actually telling anybody or anything.'
'But the plans were on display ...'
'On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.'
'That's the display department.'
'With a torch.'
'Ah, well the lights had probably gone.'
'So had the stairs.'
'But look, you found the notice didn't you?'
'Yes,' said Arthur, 'yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying Beware of the Leopard.'"
(Douglas Adams, The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy)

The advent of e-government has dated Douglas Adams' satire on local government planning consultations, and these days if the council wants to discourage participation, the relevant information is likely to be at the bottom of an unlinked web page behind a paywall with a pop-up warning Possible Worm Malware Infection.

Lack of Publicity

Although previous consultations on Eastleigh Borough Council's Draft Local Plan have been well publicised, it has been less keen to let people know that a new consultation started on 1st June.

Perhaps because the Lib Dem cabinet seem determined to ignore the hundreds of people who objected to the proposed developments at Woodhouse Lane and Boorley Green, there is to be no high profile mailing to every household in the borough, just a small article hidden away on page six of "Borough News".  

Hedge End Town Council's web site does have a link, and the documents are available at the Town Council office for those who prefer to peruse a paper version, but if people don't know they are there, they can't go along and consult them.

New Plan Documents

Comments are invited only on the proposed changes to the Plan and on new documents which have been produced since the last consultation.  These new documents are:

• Draft Sustainability Appraisal Report
• Draft Habitats Regulations Assessment
• Draft Transport Assessment.

I have already blogged on some of the changes affecting Hedge End:

• Green Fields: Further Lib Dem Raids
• Wildern Mill: Lib Dems Change Their Minds
• More Countryside Lost to Lib Dem Housing Plans

The consultation is open until 13th July and full details are on the Eastleigh Borough Council web site.  If you feel strongly about any of these changes, do please let the Council know.  Do you think the Lib Dems are keeping their election promises?

Election Promise 2011



Election Promise 2012