Local News for the Locks Heath area. If you have a contribution, please email.

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Locksheath Shopping Centre
The following information is reproduced with permission from the author, with minor editing for the Web site.
There are important developments concerning the application for new shops. An appeal hearing by a government inspector is scheduled for September 9th at 10am at Fareham Civic Offices. It is too late to give your views in writing, but you can attend the hearing. You can give your views orally, at the inspector's discretion, if you have let the appeals clerical officer at the Council know in advance that you wish to do so. The hearing is not expected to last for more than a day. You cannot obtain relevant documents on the internet. You have to go to the council offices in person to view them. Especially interesting is a scathing criticism of the proposed architectural style written by planning consultant Stephen Jupp.

The best guess would be that the hearing will be conducted in planning jargon, putting spectators on the outside. However, the presence of spectators would demonstrate local concern. So many turned up when planners discussed the proposed MacDonalds that the hearing had to be transferred to the Ferneham Hall, though that did not stop the planners from passing it. It is difficult to see how it could be known what side spectators were on, except that letters from locals in the appeal file do not include a single one in favour. They are without exception against.
Almost simultaneously, the owners have submitted a new application for shops in a different architectural style more in keeping with existing buildings, and for reversion of the proposed KFS site back to car parking. You have to send comments to the Council by June 11, and in this case can get details online. The best inspiration on how to double guess at the scheming behind this, and how to respond to it, might be a 16th Century writer called Machiavelli, famed for advice on how to be cunning and ruthless. I am not in the same league as him, but here goes...

The owners may be hoping that a government inspector will approve their proposed architectural style, since planning officials did but were overruled by councilors. But if the inspector ruled against them, they could in any case submit a revised application later. So why do it now? Could they fear that an inspector might uphold the view advanced by teh author and others that the proposed shops would overcrowd the site and should not be allowed for that reason? If the Council considers the new application before the hearing date and approves it, that will make new shops inevitable, but in an architectural style most of us would think better than that originally proposed.

JG

Inevitable? Probably. See the Audit Commission report on Fareham Borough Council at http://www.fareham.gov.uk/council/general/cpa/fullreport.pdf , paragraph 165

Whiteley Shopping Centre
There are plans for Whiteley Outlet Village to be demolished. Regional Plans make interesting reading, from Winchester City Council and P.U.S.H. Although there is talk about building a new “village”, there is also pressure for more “affordable” homes. Which will have priority? There are statements around which say this proportion of “affordable” homes should be anywhere between 30% and 60%.

Segensworth Roundabout
Work has almost finished on the Segensworth Roundabout, on the A27, in order to improve traffic flow. Details can be found in the Word document on the Hampshire County Council Web site .

There is lots going on that will affect your journey over the next month. The following is an extract from the Word document:

“Now that the new areas of the widened circulatory carriage way have been completed, the temporary narrow traffic lanes that have existed since the scheme began in September ’07, are being removed and replaced with the new permanent traffic lanes. The new areas of road widening will however still be coned off but will be available for temporary use to help offset the effects of off-peak lane closures. The new lanes will be fully opened once the new traffic signals are commissioned in early April. 

Off peak daytime (09:30 – 16:00 hours) lane closures will still be required on an ad hoc basis to both the inner and outer ring of the roundabout to enable activities such as street lighting and landscaping to be completed. 

Once the new areas of widening on the roundabout have been in worn in through traffic use for a few weeks, the anti-skid surface material can be applied. This is a planned operation and is necessary to ensure the new anti-skid will achieve adhesion to the road surface.

The application of the anti-skid material will require further lane closures but this work will be undertaken at night to minimise disruption to traffic flows. This is planned to occur in late April for about one week, but as it is a weather dependant operation this is subject to change.”