‘We’ve not misled the parish' (From Andover Advertiser)

‘We’ve not misled the parish'

2:59pm Tuesday 16th December 2008 in Search Module By Joe Faretra

OVERTON Parish Council has hit back over claims that it misled residents about a draft document assessing the potential availability of housing development land in the village.

Cllr Horace Mitchell, Basing-stoke and Deane Borough Council’s cabinet member for planning, said villagers were misled into believing that the borough planned to build 550 new homes in Overton by 2017.

In a letter that appeared on the website of North West Hamp-shire MP Sir George Young, Mr Mitchell said the borough council had no such plans and added that the draft Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) was determined by Government guidance.

He wrote: “The present purpose is to enable residents and others to comment on the process and methodology.”

But the clerk to the parish council, Laura Harley, responded in a letter that her council felt the people of Overton should be informed of the SHLAA documents and was successful in involving the community. She added that the parish council wanted the planning authority to know ‘from the outset of the community’s strongly held views that even considering such sites as suitable for housing, and in the numbers suggested, is totally unacceptable’.

Mr Mitchell has since answered all the points raised in her letter and offered to help the village where possible. Parish councillors, however, feel they had approached the matter properly.

At a parish council meeting last week borough Cllr Paula Baker said: “SHLAA has shown that there is a requirement for housing even if the majority of it is in Basingstoke.”

Chairman Alan Whitney said: “I felt that we did the right thing;our meeting was a success.”

Mr Whitney added he was grateful for the detailed response from Mr Mitchell, and could well do with his help because they did not know what the future held.