The Town Council has now updated the housing allocation policy of the current Alton Neighbourhood Plan (ANP). This is because national planning regulations require up to date district development plans that have been reviewed within the last 5 years to be maintained. Currently, the East Hampshire District Council Local Plan containing housing allocations is dated June 2014 and the ANP is 5 years old in May 2021. Without a current housing allocation plan in place, the town will not be protected against inappropriate and speculative housing development. A new district wide Local Plan is expected to be published in 2023.
The ANP update has removed housing developments which have now been built and are therefore outdated. They have been replaced by developments which have a realistic prospect of being built in the short term. In this case the two chosen sites are the Magistrates Court (which has already been demolished ready for the new McCarthy Stone Development) and the Coors Brewery, being developed by CALA Homes. Full details of how these sites were chosen is in the accompanying documents.
This means Alton, through an amended ANP, will be able to demonstrate that the town has sufficient housing developments coming forward to meet Government mandated requirements.
The Town Council ran a Regulation 14 Consultation which concluded on the 30th March 2021 and our thanks to everyone who took the time to respond. The final version of the proposed modification was subsequently approved by Full Council on the 28th April 2021 and the documentation passed to East Hampshire District Council.
East Hampshire District Council ran a further statutory consultation, known as a Regulation 16. This went live on Monday 24th May 2021 and concluded on Monday 5th July 2021.
The modified plan was then passed to an independent examiner. Details of the timetable can be found here.
A clarification note was issued by the examiner on the 27th July and can be found here
The Examiner's Report was then issued and can be found here
The modified Alton Neighbourhood Plan was then approved by East Hampshire District Council, in its capacity as the Local Planning Authority on 11th November 2021 and can be found by clicking here.