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Hamble Airfield: Collation of HPC’s Responses to HCC
For ease of reference, we have collated below the formal responses submitted by Hamble Parish Council to Hampshire County Council (HCC) in respect of the Hamble Airfield quarry application (Cemex)….
Response to Cemex’s Press Statement
Cemex ran a pre-application online consultation in November 2021, but since then has made no attempt to engage meaningfully with Hamble residents. Furthermore, there is no evidence that Cemex has incorporated any of the feedback received from the online consultation in the planning application that was subsequently submitted.
Hamble Peninsula Art Trail
Work has started on a new trail that will take visitors on a tour of the unique history, character, and ecology of the Hamble Peninsula, incorporating the parishes of Bursledon, Hamble-le-Rice and Hound.
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Hamble Parish Council
The official page for Hamble Parish Council for the community of Hamble-le-Rice with approximately 4
** April Newsletter Published **
The April issue of the Hamble Parish Council newsletter has been published online, and hard copies will be hitting your doorsteps over the next few days.
In This Issue:
- A New Hamble Coronation Garden
- Hamble Airfield Update
- Hamble Peninsula Art Trail
- Updates from the Community
- EGG-cellent Easter Activities
Here's the link: bit.ly/3ZnaGu8
Happy Reading!
** 𝗛𝗮𝗺𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗹 (𝗛𝗣𝗖) 𝗨𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗮𝗺𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗔𝗶𝗿𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗹𝗱 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗹 𝗘𝘅𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 (𝗖𝗲𝗺𝗲𝘅) ** - 24 March 2023
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸?
• No date has yet been set for the Regulatory Committee meeting where this application will be decided. However, it is now too late for the meeting to be held in April, so we are working on the assumption that it will be held in May, possibly June.
• The long-awaited response from Natural England has now been published. Sadly, they do not provide a firm answer on whether they support or oppose the application as they currently do not have sufficient information from CEMEX. They have asked for more information to assess the potential quality of the land on the Airfield site for agricultural purposes and the strategy for its restoration and reuse. This is a government requirement, designed to safeguard the most productive land for agricultural use as part of its food security arrangements.
• Natural England’s response also highlights the potential contribution that the site could make to supporting Solent Waders and Brent Geese which would help to improve the biodiversity of the site as part of the restoration policy. It suggests that there could be an option for the site to form part of the sustainable alternative natural Greenspaces, taking pressure off more sensitive sites. This reinforces our view that the site should have community-wide recreational potential in the future and should be protected for a minimum of 30 years.
• Hampshire County Council’s Arboriculture or Tree officer has also responded, raising concerns about the trees that are likely to be lost because of the access point. They have asked that CEMEX explores more fully the implication of these trees being lost and will not support the application until this has been done.
• Following Cemex’s recent press statement to the Southern Daily Echo, claiming that they have attempted to engage with Hamble residents throughout the planning process, we sent our response to the Echo last Friday, and were pleased to see this published on Monday. You can view this article here: www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/23396109.hamble-quarry-plans-council-slams-cemex-lack-engagement/. Thank you to the Echo for publishing our comments.
• We were also pleased to see the excellent comments from Hamble Peninsular Residents’ Group (HPRG) added to the original article, robustly rebutting Cemex’s claims of community engagement.
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁?
• We will be contacting Hampshire County Council about the issues raised by Natural England and HCC’s Arboriculture officer, and in particular the failure to provide the required information for a full response to be made. We will press them to go ahead with the decision process based on the current information given the time already allowed to Cemex.
• We will be planning our strategy for the weeks leading up to the Regulatory Committee meeting, and specifically how best to communicate the key points of the HCC case officer’s report with residents and local/regional press. We hope to work with community groups, particularly HPRG, in updating residents.
• Thank you to everyone who has provided input into the draft map of key locations that we would like councillors on the HCC Regulatory Committee (RC) to visit on their upcoming site visit to Hamble before they decide on the quarry application. We will build your suggestions into this map, specifically highlighting safety issues and proximity to homes.
• We will be reviewing the work carried out by the Parish Council to date to ensure that we have focused on the issues that we believe are most likely to result in a refusal. The comprehensive response from residents, businesses, and other stakeholders means we are confident that the wider issues have been fully covered. All our responses to Hampshire County Council are on the blog on our website – but please contact the Parish Office if you think we have missed something significant.
• We remain committed to engaging with residents, businesses and local organisations who would like more information on the quarrying application. Please get in touch with us at the Parish Office if you have any points you would like to raise with your Parish Council.
Thank you for this comprehensive update.
Thank you.
Many thanks HPC.
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