Test Valley Borough Council 2040
On the 9th January 2024 TVBC published the Reg 18 Version of the Local Plan. The following note seeks to provide a high-level view of the potential impact on the village of Braishfield with particular reference to housing provision.
The note is structured so as to align with that of the draft LP and which includes the following documents: Draft Local Plan
As an aside recent housing land supply figures for TVBC, published 7th February 2024, reveal a 7.01 year housing supply. Whilst this figure will be open to challenge by developers at appeal, if correct will enable TVBC to robustly resist speculative housing applications on greenfield sites.
TVBC Housing Land Supply update
Draft Local Plan
The primary text is set out in the draft Local Plan. Section 1.49 invites comments on the LP and provides contact details. However, the consultation dates are not identified and presumably not fixed.
Chapter 3 (Spatial Strategy) refers to growth within TVBC.
Figure 3 (Key Diagram) identifies settlement hierarchy and includes allocations for housing, employment and gypsy sites.
Paras 3.41-3.43 refers to settlement boundaries and, with reference to neighbourhood plans, confirms that they are able to review settlement boundaries, to facilitate development, but may not reduce them in size.
Special Strategy Policy 1 (SS1) refers to Settlement Hierarchy and identifies Braishfield as a Tier 3 village which allows for limited development, as follows:
- Windfalls
- Rural Affordable Housing sites
- Replacement dwellings
- Community-led Development
- Small business uses
- Re-use of Buildings
- Renewable Energy Development
This is similar to the current local plan. The housing markets are split between TVBC North and TVBC South.
TVBC S is allocated to provide some 237 houses p.a. (i.e. 43% of the overall total). Of these TVBC S is required to provide some 282 rural houses within the plan period. These will be provided within Tier 3 (i.e. to include Braishfield) and Tier 4 settlements.
No reference is made to a specific requirement within Braishfield but SS5 (Neighbourhood Development Plan Housing Requirements) identifies villages of a similar size to Braishfield as having to provide a minimum of 10 dwellings.
Where new Neighbourhood Plans are created they will be required to provide for a minimum number of dwellings by TVBC – presumably in the order of 10 dwellings?
Table 3 (page 56) identifies a minimum requirement of 4,730 dwellings within TVBC S. However, existing completions and allocations can be taken away from this figure (to include the 1,100 allocation at Whitenap) – in effect new housing allocations amount to a requirement of 1,644 dwellings and these are the areas identified in brown in the inset maps.
Areas of housing allocation in TVBC S are set out in SS6 and are as follows:
- Land South of Ganger Farm, Romsey- 340 dwellings (page 108)
- Land South of the Bypass, South Romsey – 110 dwellings (page 110)
- Land at Velmore Farm, Valley Park – 1,070 dwellings (page 113)
- Land at King Edwards Park, Chandler’s Ford – 44 dwellings (page 116)
- Land at Upton Lane – 80 dwellings (may well have been identified in error as no other obvious reference in LP)
The following inset map (see here) shows the new settlement boundary for Braishfield with the following identified changes:
- Newport Lane – tidying up of rear gardens on recent development to include within the settlement boundary
- Recreation ground – taken out
- Allotment gardens on Braishfield Road – taken out
- The Church and a number of houses on or near Church Lane
Many thanks to Mark Sennitt for his work on this document.