MINUTES
OF
THE 7TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF
COMMUNITY CAMPAIGN (HART)
HELD ON 3RD FEBRUARY 2011 COMMENCING AT 7.45 P.M.
PRESENT:
James
Radley (Chairman)
Simon Ambler (Vice
Chairman)
Chris Axam (Treasurer)
and
25 others.
Introduction
by James
Radley (Chairman): Welcome to the 7th A.G. M. and
my apologies for
the cancellation of the earlier date.
Apologies
for
absence were received.
The
minutes
of the previous Annual General Meeting held on 11th
February
2010 were taken as read and agreed to be a correct recording
of the meeting.
Queen
Elizabeth
Barracks:
There
was
a large scale map on display at the back of the room for
members to view.
James Radley reported
that the
application which was submitted just before Christmas had been
validated. There
was a substantial amount of supporting documentation. James
requested that
members of the CCH look through any document on a topic that
interested them
and report anything which caused them concern.
Another
Taylor
Wimpey exhibition would be open for viewing by the public, on
Thursday
10th and Saturday 12th February and
James urged everyone
who could to attend –it lets Taylor Wimpey know that we are
still very
interested. Main concerns would be traffic and schools. We are
hand-tied re
junctions; Hampshire County Council Highways officers say that
junctions will
work and the Inspector has agreed despite our challenges
raised at the appeal
that they will not work. Hampshire Highways are being
typically inflexible in
acknowledging that there could be real problems on local
roads. Jenny Radley
(County Councillor) is researching the traffic issues but as
yet nothing has
been changed. At a meeting yesterday our concerns were raised
and we told them
we were not happy. Taylor Wimpey has made £3 million available
for other
unspecified off-site highways schemes. The CCH
would like to see this money ring fenced to address
problems as they
arise but the Hampshire County Council would like it to be
spent on unrelated
Fleet Town Access Plan schemes.
Concern
is
also being expressed regarding the schools. Secondary schools
are still a
cause for concern. Recently children who have moved to live in
the Reading Road
South area are being bussed to Frogmore Community School in
Yateley as there
are no spare school places locally. This is even before the
QEB is built –the
situation is dire. Primary schools are also a problem. Just
prior to Christmas
there was a change of heart from Hampshire County Council.
They instructed that
the developer did not need to build a school on the site. They
intend to expand
the local schools instead, with no regard to the impact on
traffic. The Taylor
Wimpey (TW) model has always been for a school on site not for
schools off
site. T.W. had been told they must have a school – they were
surprised by the
lost appeal and now they are now treading very carefully. At
the very least we
need to protect the school site for longer than the usual 5
years. We think
this is not adequate so will be arguing that 15 - 20 years
would be more
appropriate. We must not make the same errors as have
previously been made.
Community facilities –upside more to do with the Parish
Councils –some sort of
community centre, athletics track, etc. Football provision is
OK within our
area, mainly at Peter Driver site.
Time
Scale:
4th March is the deadline for comments. The
planning meeting
is scheduled for 1st June 2011 in Harlington
Centre.
The
view
of Hart Planners is that TW’s application is OK this time,
although they
said that last time – and the application was rejected at
planning appeal.
A
member asked if TW and Hampshire County Council (the local
education authority)
have agreed that they will build on Church Crookham Junior
School. James Radley
replied that TW have agreed a high educational contribution
because Hampshire
County Council recognize a major school capacity problem and
is talking to
local heads. A suitable alternative is to have an infant
school on the QEB and
expand the junior school into the former infant school site,
as suggested by
the local schools themselves. TW have given £13 million to
Hampshire County
Council for education.
LDF:
Hart
District
Council is having to produce a 20 year plan called the Local
Development Framework (LDF). In this plan Hart were to explain
where they will
build the 4400 new houses imposed by the previous Government.
At the time of
the AGM it looks as if the new coalition Government will allow
local district
councils to decide their own 20 year housing targets. Hart
D.C. cabinet have
decided to set the revised target number at 4,000 new houses.
There has been
poor consideration given to the infrastructure. Of the
suggested 4000 new
houses about 54% will be in Church Crookham and Fleet. QEB and
Hitches Lane
developments have already been taken into account. Hart's
planning department
invited landowners to offer their land as future development
sites and from
this the following are being considered; Fleet town centre for
200 new houses,
600 around Grove Farm and sites along Redfields Lane. The
A287/Redfields Lane
junction is so bad that no developments should be possible for
Redfields Lane.
Development south of Hitches Lane may be possible. Although
there is a sizeable
sum of money available to improve the junction at Redfields
Lane a major scheme
would be very expensive, much more than is available. A member
raised from the
floor the need for a new junction on Beacon Hill Road near to
Tweseldown Road.
James Radley replied that a more formal consultation would be
coming so Community
Campaign (Hart) members should be very interested in following
this.
District
Boundary
Changes:
The
Boundary
Commission are currently reviewing the elected member make up
of Hart
District Council. As a third of Hart seats come up in
different years they want
to have 3 councillors representing every ward. Hence there
would be one seat up
for election per district ward each district election year.
There are 35
elected district members at present, they want to reduce this
to 33. This would
allow for 11 district wards with 3 district members per ward.
They are
therefore looking at the re-jigging of the district boundaries
from 17 district
wards at present, down to 11. District members are elected for
4 year terms.
The fourth year will is when the county council elections are
held.
Parish
Councils:
John
Bennison
reported that the shadow Church Crookham Parish Council has
now a
formally elected and constituted true Parish Council.
Peter Driver
Centre and QEB are quite big projects for the new P.C. The
running track will
be moving to the QEB site as there is no room for one at Peter
Driver. The
Athletics Club will also move to the QEB site.
Both
Fleet
and Elvetham Heath now have respectively a new town and parish
council to
represent then.
TAG:
Outcome
of
the weekend planning appeal is not yet known. Rushmoor Borough
Council is
expecting a decision by the end of March. During winter months
the airport is
used less.
In
response
to a member's question as to “if the flight routing: has this
changed?”; TAG set up a ‘’Quiet Flying’’ programme. A lot of
work on ground
noise – but it also flagged up the issue of over-flying. TAG
are still
operating the pilot scheme in which south-bound aircraft turn
early to go over
Beacon Hill, so reducing the number of aircraft flying over
heavily
residential areas. TAG is a commercial
operator and they want to
increase their business – if they get the agreement this year
they are likely
to be seeking a further opportunity to increase flight
movements in 2019. The
concern is that as most of the airport is
surrounded by residential buildings, their options for finding
non-obtrusive
flying routes are limited.
There
were
various queries on a range of topics raised from the floor
which were
answered by James Radley.
Elections: All current
executive position holders were
re-elected having been unchallenged when proposed and seconded
by members of
the meeting.
There
being
no other business the meeting closed at 9.18 pm.