News

Fareham Borough Council has this week adopted its new Local Plan; this includes the strategic allocation at South Fareham which Hallam Land Management Limited has been promoting.

The process of preparing a new local plan has had many a twist and turn since its inception in 2017.

The initial Draft Plan was prepared in the context of the 2012 NPPG but with the revisions that introduced the Government’s Standard Method, the level of local housing need to be accommodated increased.  This required the Council to consider strategic allocations in order to provide additional housing supply over the plan period.  South Fareham was one of the options identified in 2020.

Later that year came the potential changes to the standard method which would have suggested a lower level of housing and the strategic allocations were not carried forward into the first regulation 19 plan that the Council consulted on.  Government then chose not to pursue those change to the methodology and the earlier 2020 position was re-instated in a second regulation 19 plan in 2021.  This proposed 1200 new homes at South Fareham.

The examination followed in March 2022 with the Inspector’s Report published some 12 months later.  The Inspector describes South Fareham as a location with good accessibility to services and forms a sustainable urban extension in line with the Plan’s Development Strategy.  Moreover, she was satisfied that the allocation would not lead to the overall integrity of the Strategic Gap in this location being harmed.  The Inspector notes the considerable amount of technical work that has been conducted by Hallam and draws the conclusion that the allocation is deliverable in the plan period.

Working with the Council, Hallam prepared an indicative masterplan that has been embedded into the Local Plan and forms the basis for the amended plans that were submitted in relation to its application.

Owen Jones appeared at various examination hearing session on behalf of Hallam and is the lead consultant following LRM’s appointment in 2018.