11/5/2019 Mail - Woodgate, Jenny - Outlook

Northbrook development

Sun 13/10/2019 17:10 To: EHDC - Local Plan I am writing to object to the proposal to build houses on the Northbrook estate. I understand that one of the main criteria for any of the possible developments is that they must be ‘sustainable’. In order to prove that he can achieve this, the developer has made great play at public meetings of the features that are part of the plans. These are: 1. To build a shop to serve the new residents. In my lifetime living in the village I have seen the and Froyle shops close. Bentley has reduced the floor area by over 50% and still struggles to maintain a presence. It has changed hands twice in the last four years. Any developer can put up a building and call it a shop but a shop serving only 500 houses will not succeed. There are six supermarkets (and one more planned) only five miles away in Alton. Farnham and provide even more shops. Couple this choice with the various home delivery offerings and there is no possibility that any retail premises on the site will have a chance of surviving. As with his Froyle development, after a few years, the developer will merely change the use to residential.

2. There is a proposal to build a pub. Statistics released earlier this year show that pubs are closing throughout Great Britain at the rate of 14 per week. Bentley, Froyle and Binsted have lost some five pubs in the last few years. With even more in surrounding villages (, and ). In addition, the Bull, right on Northbrook’s doorstep has folded. There is no local need for a new pub and 500 homes would, in no way, provide the clientele to justify a new one. The developer has mopped up housing and land close to Northbrook. If a pub is so important to his plans, why has he not bought The Bull? Is it that a pub is not a serious long-term proposal?

3. Initially there was a proposal to provide a surgery. This has now been scaled down to a suggestion that any community hall could be used as a medical practice. We are fortunate in Bentley to have a thriving doctor’s surgery. This is a real village enterprise where we are now on the third generation of the same family. One can’t merely put up a building and say, ‘Here’s your surgery.’ Where will the nurses come from? Where will they find doctors? Even the existing surgery following a recent extension, struggles to cope with the existing population. It could not cope with 500 new homes.

4. There is a plan to build a school. This is the least plausible of the promises to build sustainability. Bentley already has one of the most successful primary schools in the south of . Families move to and rent in the village just so that their children can benefit from the first-class education. In the past few years the parents and friends raised in excess of £500,000 for improvements and extensions. What parent,living at Northbrook with Bentley school on their doorstep, is going to gamble with their children’s future https://outlook.office365.com/mail/none/id/AAMkADIxNjE3NWJlLTMxYmEtNDEwZC1iOGM4LTYxOTllYjNmN2MzZQBGAAAAAABrEkrzGtHSSpsf… 1/2 11/5/2019 Mail - Woodgate, Jenny - Outlook and send them to a brand new and wholly unproven school? In any case, if the Upper Froyle development’s demography is an example, there would probably be insufficient children for any new school ever to be viable. However, an influx of children so close to the existing school could deprive Froyle children of a place at Bentley. Thus breaking an undertaking made when the Froyle school was closed.

5. The developer has promised a half-hourly bus service from the development to Farnham. What about to Alton? In any case, when asked at a recent meeting for how long would he fund this service, no guarantee was forthcoming. There was even the suggestion that it would be funded by the tenants/residents through a service charge.

So, like the publicity before Upper Froyle was developed, the developers are promising the earth in an effort to prove that the development could stand on its own feet and not have to rely on what Bentley village already has to offer. None of these proposals would ever succeed. Thus the losers would be the existing residents who could be crowded out of their surgery and find it difficult to find a place in their own local school for their children. A good comparison of what happens when you plonk new houses down in the middle of nowhere would be Upper Froyle. This was developed by the same business behind the Northbrook proposals. I know the site really well. I visit it on average once a week. During the day it is like the Mary Celeste, a ghost town. It would seem to be a dormitory for young commuters. There are no children playing outside. It is as soulless as a morgue. There could be the same outcome if Northbrook goes ahead. The only obvious choice for new housing in this area is Whitehill and Bordon. There are still acres of MOD land ripe for development, there is a new bypass and road improvements and the new shopping centre is on its way to be a success. So there is no need for any new housing to be provided in this area.

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