CHILBOLTON residents have raised concerns about plans for seven houses on Test Valley Farm - claiming the former county councillor who owns the land ‘persuaded’ the borough council to include in the local plan.

As previously reported, Chilbolton villagers were up in arms after their ex-councillor submitted plans to build homes on a smallholding.

The land at Test Valley Farm forms part of an agricultural smallholding, with a number of restrictions attached to the use of the land. In 2012, Andrew Gibson built an annex at the house “without consent”, and subsequently gained retrospective planning permission for it.

READ MORE: Chilbolton residents object to Test Valley Farm house plans

Then, in 2018, he stepped down as Hampshire County Council’s (HCC) cabinet member for culture, recreation and countryside amid controversy after saying he had been in breach of conditions reserving the property for use by those working in agriculture, forestry or equestrian activities for over 10 years, during an application to relax the restrictions.

He remained Hampshire County Councillor for Chilbolton and Wherwell until May 2021.

The latest application seeks to build seven properties on part of the farmland within the Chilbolton settlement boundary. However, residents have said the plans would “blight the area”, with 49 objections to the plans.

Now, some residents have claimed that the planning application should never have been allowed, because Test Valley Farm was not in the Local Plan map drawn up by the Parish Council and therefore not considered as a development site.

One concerned resident, Richard Youell, said: “The Parish Council and a very large number of the residents of Chilbolton hammered out a Local Development Plan document over a period of several years. In summary this plan highlighted the additional housing that the village required and could accommodate, and the locations where such provision should be sited, as well as those areas in or around the village where no development should take place.

“This plan was signed off by the Parish Council and accepted by Test Valley planning department. The plan included a detailed map showing which parts of the village and its surrounding country fell into the various categories.”

SEE ALSO: Hampshire County Council cabinet member Andrew Gibson set to resign amid planning controversy

Mr Yeoull added that Mr Gibson, who had purchased Test Valley Farm during the time when the plan was being drawn up, “persuaded” TVBC to amend the plan after it had already been agreed.

He continued: “[He] visited the Planning Department of TVBC and persuaded a member of the council staff to amend the boundary map so as to include his field, which the plan had excluded, thus enabling him immediately to lodge an application for a substantial housing development on this piece of open land. As was stated at a recent Parish Meeting, this change ‘did not smell, it stank’.

Mr Yeoull added that he and other residents would now like to see TVBC “follow the proper course and reject the whole scheme”.

Confirming the village’s unhappiness with the amendment, a spokesperson for Chilbolton Parish Council said: “The decision to alter the settlement boundary was taken by TVBC. In the next round of TVBC Local Plan consultations the Parish Council will be seeking that the boundary is put back to how it was.”

When asked when, why and by whom the change to the map was made, a council spokesperson, said: “The settlement boundaries identified in the Adopted Local Plan establish that development and redevelopment within boundary is acceptable in principle.

“As part of the process to support the Adopted Local Plan, the methodology for what was included in a settlement boundary was updated to include other areas, such as farms.

“As Test Valley Farm adjoins the built-up area of Chilbolton, it was therefore included within the settlement boundary for Chilbolton.

“On a wider note, the Local Plan, including the changes to the settlement boundaries were consulted on with residents and all parish councils, and was then subject to an examination in public with a government appointed planning inspector, who endorsed and approved the settlement boundary. This was then adopted formally in 2016.”

Andrew Gibson has not responded to the Advertiser's requests for comment.

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