"The countryside and coastline at Chilling and Brownwich are some of the real treasures of our area. If we are to protect it, the County Council needs to understand how much opposition there is in our community to their destruction by gravel extraction. We need to make our voices heard. Please don’t leave it to someone else to speak up on your behalf." - 12/12/2007 Mark Hoban MP for Fareham Click for here for council and other contacts HCC REPORT REJECTING CHILLING AND BROWNWICH AS AN ALTERATIVE SITE APPROVED BY FULL COUNCIL. (See News)

LATEST NEWS: HCC rejects the Chilling and Brownwich Site at the full council meeting. Campaign update from the Campaign Team. Warsash Festival Report. See latest news for further Info (click here)

STOP : HCC Reject Chilling and Brownwich site as an alternative site. See our News Page here. Our latest Campaign update bulletin is available here.
Link here to the HCC Sand and Gravel Apportionment SEERA Vote. Make your view on Apportionment known to SEERA

RobertTutton
 

Extract from Robert Tutton's email / letter to HCC

Dear Sir

I have been instructed by Janet and Ronald Gill of [deleted], Warsash to RAISE OBJECTION to the suggestion that 300 hectares of land comprising the Chilling and Brownwich Estate at Warsash should be considered for sand and gravel extraction and subsequent landfill.

One recalls Hampshire County Council’s justification for  acquisition of Brownwich and Chilling Farms in the first instance - to protect this vestige of undeveloped Solent coast from falling into the hands of private developers.

The ‘Spatial Vision’ set down in the Minerals and Waste Core Strategy records the intention to satisfy Hampshire’s apportioned share of the national and regional need for minerals ‘with the minimum of environmental damage’ but there can be little doubt that extraction at Chilling/Brownwich would be highly disruptive and cause significant long-term damage to an environmentally sensitive part of the undeveloped Solent coast. Were this suggestion to succeed into the submitted document, minerals management in Hampshire would certainly not ‘..be considered to be a leading example in the United Kingdom and Europe’.   

Paragraph 92 of the Hampshire County Structure Plan 1996-2011 (Review) records that ‘Strategic Gap’ status is accorded to areas of land which ‘..have particular importance as open and undeveloped land…(and)…may also have other important benefits for local communities as areas with recreation, amenity and/or nature conservation value..(so)..Strict control of development is necessary if their importance is to be maintained’. Paragraph 96 tells one that the ‘only circumstances’ in which development may be allowed in a Strategic Gap is if its character and appearance would not permanently visually or physically diminished. There can be little doubt that the extraction of sand and gravel from the Chilling/Brownwich area would diminish the character and appearance of the area, permanently.   

One reads that Pickwell Farm and Forest Lodge Farm lie within Strategic Gaps and the Hamble Airfield site is within a Local Gap but no recognition is accorded to the inclusion of the Chilling/Brownwich Farms within a Strategic Gap - it has been shown as such on the Proposals Map of Fareham Borough Local Plan Review since June 2000. The failure to recognise the Strategic Gap status of land at Warsash gives an unbalanced impression of its relative merits, when compared to the other three sites mentioned in Question 6. One reads that the Pickwell Farm site adjoins a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC) at its eastern side and Forest Lodge Farm is adjoined on its eastern side by a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) but the Hamble Airfield site does not immediately abut any land of special ecological value. It is noteworthy, however, that four SINCs fall within the Chilling/Brownwich Farms site and SSSIs lie to the east, west and south. In correspondence with my clients, Helen Stevens of Natural England has referred to the Brownwich/Chilling site being a roost site for Brent geese and intimates that such protected species as dormice, badgers and bats would likely be affected by gravel extraction. When attention is also given to the agricultural value of the land and the ‘high’ prospect of archaeological finds, it is evident that the intrinsic qualities of the Warsash area should not be compromised. This land is already a valued habitat; it does not need to be excavated in order to realise that potential.           

Brownwich and Chilling Farms are presented on Figure 69 as pAPA4, not pAPA6 as purported in Question 6.  My clients wish to record their view, in response to Question 6, that Brownwich and Chilling Farms should not be identified as a preferred area for land-won sand or gravel extraction and should not be viewed as an alternative to Pickwell Farm, Hamble Airfield or Forest Lodge Farm or as an addition to them.  

In view of my clients’ evident interest in this matter, it would be appreciated if you would kindly place their details and mine on your mailing list, in order that we may monitor the progress of the Hampshire Minerals Plan, following its submission in October 2008.

Yours faithfully

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C.A.M.E.L Solent was set up by a group of concerned local residents on 1/12/07 to campaign and lobby against the Mineral Extraction Plan and infill. Our actions and campaign are based on information we have obtained from a wide source of public documents, however we take no personal responsibility for the accuracy of the material provided. All relevant papers are available from Hampshire County Council.
Last modified: 29-Jul-2008 12:44