John Cooper, Chairman of the County Branch Planning Group

New planning arrangements risk freezing people out of the big decisions especially on housing development that will shape the future of our communities across Hampshire. The loss of the County Structure Plan and the lack of detailed policies in local plans are major shortcomings in the planning proposals published by the Government and included in the Queen's Speech.

The Government has said that it wants a simpler planning system, strong enough to protect the environment and deliver sustainable development. Yet it is proposing fewer chances for the public to have their say, less detailed policies and more, not fewer, planning documents. The Government has made welcome improvements to the plans it announced 2 years ago, but there is a long way to go to make the new system better than the one we already have.

The Hampshire Branch of The Campaign to Protect Rural Hampshire wants:

• A strong statutory role for the County in the preparation of the new South East Regional Spatial Strategy
  
  
• Detailed local policies for valuing and conserving Hampshire's precious historic environment
  
  
• Local initiatives such as Parish Plans and Village Design Statements already completed in many of or villages, included in the new Local Development Frameworks
  
  
• Clarity over how planning for such key Hampshire issues as transport, minerals and waste will relate to the new Local Development Frameworks

CPRE Hampshire believes that strong and accountable planning is vital to the future of our towns and countryside if we are to manage all the pressures for development across the County. We will be using our long experience with planning together with our detailed local knowledge to press for improvements that will help us here in Hampshire.

May 2005