New Forest and Southampton District Group

by Pam Mason

The New Forest and Southampton Group continues to be very short of volunteers, and following the tragic accidental death of David Addison now has no one monitoring planning and other developments in the area. The creation of the New Forest National Park has removed some pressures within the Park area, but has exacerbated development pressure outside the Park boundaries, particularly in Lymington, Milford on Sea and New Milton. These include gravel extraction plans by Hampshire County Council as well as continuing 'garden-grabbing' residential development, which will only worsen the area's traffic problems, especially in Lyndhurst and Lymington.

Additionally, within the Park itself there may be conflict between recreational activities favoured by the Park Authority and the Forest's conservation requirements. Meanwhile the inclusion of Southampton, Totton and the Waterside in the South Hampshire Sub-region will intensify house-building and other development pressures in these areas.

CPRE should be involved locally in the new Local Development Frameworks which will decide where development goes in the next 20 years or so, and the need to reactivate and/or reconfigure the Group is greater than ever.

If you would like to volunteer your services, either in the areas of planning, transport and rural affairs, or to revive the social and fundraising aspects of the District Group, please contact Pam Mason or Becky French at Branch Office.

This page updated 9th April 2008
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