HIRA Report - July 2003

- Thu 22nd May 2003

This month's regular report from Hayling Island Residents Association details problems with housing poilicy on Hayling and also covers the topics of West Hayling Nature Reserve, Dark Skies policy, the Civic Design Award and Regional Assemblies.Housing Policy For Hayling Island




As readers will know, HIRA has been attending to the issue of excessive house building on Hayling for many years. In particular it has been attempting to determine how some restraint may be placed on the ever increasing number of applications for development that are submitted to the council. It seems that issues such as traffic, sewage, over-development are rarely grounds for rejection if the application otherwise meets the legal demands of the planning laws.




At our recent committee meeting, usually attended by some of the Island councillors, we were informed by those councillors present that the Hayling councillors are preparing a paper on a Housing Policy for Hayling which is to deal with precisely this matter. In due course the paper will be presented to HBC for discussion and possible acceptance as a guide to the future in this particular area of local government and interest.




It would clearly be very valuable if parties who have particular knowledge and professional expertise in these areas to contact one of their local councillors to provide supporting input. The next item is also related to this topic.






District-wide Plan




For many years the Havant Borough District-wide Local Plan has been grinding its way through the morass of local consultation. During these many years our now-President, Theo Tott has been representing the interests of HIRA and hence the inhabitants of Hayling.




Theo has attended numerous meetings and made many formal submissions and as the plan has recently reached the Public Inquiry stage, Theo has also been attending this.




Since many of our submissions have not been taken up, Theo has made formal presentations to the inquiry on three topics.






Goldring Close Development




Theo’s comments were presented in the April Hayling Islander and HIRA has been opposing this development ever since it was proposed. In relation to the previous item on housing policy for the Island and this Development Plan, it is interesting to note that only two years ago we were informed that the Goldring Close development was to be a ‘reserve site’, only to be developed if there was overwhelming need and all other credible sites on the Island had been used up, therefore and was unlikely to be sanctioned until after 2011. It seems this point has arrived 8 years early, a matter we have been emphasising in many of our recent reports.




We now seem to be in the situation where this development could happen in the near future, just emphasising how pointless such plans are. They really only exist to provide a sop to those who show an interest and they rarely have any impact on decisions in the future, if a powerful lobby emerges determined to circumvent peoples’ wishes and objections. However, it allows the HBC planning department to justify its very large budget.






Hayling Billy Industrial Site.




While HIRA recognises that as many opportunities as possible should be provided on the Island, the demise of Skipper’s in West Town and the Modex site in Mengham showed that industrial locations on Hayling were not in great demand primarily due to poor access.




Statistics seem to show that sites such as these attract considerable inward commuting thus adding to traffic problems.




Theo argued that while HIRA supported the proposals in part if felt that the scale was too big and unlikely to result in high occupancy.






Fishery Lane.




Complaints have been received for years about the inadequacy of this road as an access route to the recycling centre, to the holiday centres and for the local inhabitants bearing in mind the large vehicles that often use it.




From the safety point of view, improvements to the pavements have been requested for many years. As a result of lack of response in theses matters over the years, Theo presented HIRA’s views on this matter also. Part of the reply was that improvement to this road would put in jeopardy its ‘rural character’!




It is hard to be enthusiastic about inquiries, plans etc. as their formulation takes years, uses vast sums of money unproductively and are usually ignored if pressures are great enough or circumstances change.






West Hayling Local Nature Reserve.




I have mentioned this topic a number of times and development is taking place which should be of considerable interest and benefit to many Islanders.




Little Terns are back this year and the various organisations involved are hoping they will breed successfully again.




The RSPB has offered to see if it can organise a wardening scheme to protect the local wildlife and provide information to interested visitors. To carry out this effectively the RSPB needs volunteer wardens to work a few hours per month.




Anyone interested, member or not is invited to contact Chris Cockburn on 02392 650672, 07764 290629 or chris.cockburn@rspb.org.uk. Training will be given and people volunteering may see a new side of Hayling that they find rewarding.








Dark Skies Policy.




People will have seen this topic mentioned in the pres recently. Street lighting is attempting to reduce light spillage and it is coming as a a possible aspect of planning. Many people feel that there is too much light at night, particularly on motorways (where there are no pedestrians) and in the period between say 1 and 6 in the morning. Since it will take years to solve this problem totally it would seem sensible to offer astronomers periods of darkness for say 1 hour per night over large parts of the country, gradually increasing as circumstances permit.








Civic Design Award.




Every year organisations are asked to make recommendations for an award for excellence of some new development in the locality. HIRA has proposed the new HI Sailing Club building. We are not so sure about their request for 300 car parking places on the other side of the lifeboat station.






Regional Assemblies




Regional Assemblies.




Regional Assemblies are being discussed in various forums and, if implemented, they will ultimately influence local activities. It is hard to get enthusiastic about another layer of government if one remembers all the fuss recently about parish councils.




At the higher level, regional assemblies will provide many opportunities for local politicians to increase their influence but they will take away much power from the county councils perhaps. Hence the dilemma, does one risk losing power at county level, but gaining it at a higher level.




If an assembly were to come into being it would cover all SE England, omitting London of course. It would seem to coincide with the local MEP electoral region.




At the parish council level of course local people could at least have related to such a level of participation but the enthusiasm even for that seems very limited.




Much may be heard about this in future and the local residents’ organisations are paying attention to the process but it is much too early to reach any conclusions or even to provide sensible views on the matter.








July Meeting.




This meeting will be on the 17th of the month and the topic will be ‘Meet your Councillors’. We hope that most of the Hayling councillors will attend and that they will give a brief statement of their intentions for the future, now that the recent elections have determined the new make-up of the council.




There will be plenty of opportunity to ask questions. A major topic is likely to be the housing policy for Hayling that is mentioned above.

By forum user, Mat