About Hampshire Farm
Hampshire Farm is one of three reserve housing allocations subject to Policy H4 of the adopted Havant Borough Local Plan (September 2005). These housing sites were allocated in the Local Plan, having been found acceptable for residential development following independent examination by a Local Plan Inspector and subsequently endorsed as reserve allocations by Havant Borough Council.
Policy H4 of the adopted Local Plan states that:
"The following sites are proposed as reserve housing sites to provide...additional dwellings in the Borough. The release of these sites can be managed through agreement by the Strategic and Local Plan Authorities if monitoring identifies a change in circumstances which needs to be accommodated. Until such time as they are formally agreed for release, Countryside Policies will be applied to these sites."
Policy No: H4.3
Site: Hampshire Farm, Emsworth
Site area: 8.4
Indicative dwellings: 250
The housing land supply position in Havant now requires the release of the site to ensure that a constant supply of new homes is delivered in future years. The decision to bring the Hampshire Farm site forward now has been subject to the independent advice of planning barristers and has been the subject of consultation with planning officers at Havant Borough Council. The acceptability of bringing reserve sites forward has been tested in other Hampshire authorities and such sites are now being granted planning permission in accordance with National Planning Policy in order to avoid housing land supply shortfalls leading to speculative applications on sites that are not identified for housing.
The Hampshire Farm site was allocated for residential development as part of a specific package of proposals which also included 17 hectares of land to be given to the local community for public open space (Policy R16 (IV) of the adopted Local Plan). Both this and the residential area are shown on the extract from the Local Plan Proposals Map below.
