Basingstoke & Dean Borough Council Manydown Overview Committee Meeting

There were no apologies for absence.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no urgent matters.

The Committee agreed to add an additional point that confirmation was given from Urban&Civic that their plans would be based on an up-to-date water cycle study result.

The minutes of the meeting held on 13^th October 2022 were confirmed by the committee as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

The Portfolio Holder for Finance and Major Projectsintroduced the report which provided an overview of the Manydown Programme and an update on the progress of the Manydown North and Manydown South projects.

He advised that following the signing of theSection 106 agreement for Manydown North the LPA issued the consent for Outline Planning Permission on 20 December 2021.  .

The Manydown Development Vehicle Limited Liability Partnership (MDV LLP) Overarching Business Plan and Phase 1 business plans were yet to be approved and it had been necessary to extend the current Manydown Garden Communities limited liability partnership (MGC LLP) Business Plan until such a time as those key documents were agreed.   At which point a further review of the MGC LLP Business Plan and Budget would take place.

He confirmed that the Committee would be invited to a confidential briefing session on the key elements of the Overarching Business Plan and Phase 1 Business Plans to enable their comments to inform the consideration of the Business plans by the Cabinet.

He said that the Committee had been invited to visit Urban&Civic’s site at Rugby at the previous meeting and the arrangements would be confirmed in due course.

He touched on the communications, engagement and marketing strategy and confirmed that a website (Manydownlife), Facebook and Twitter pages had been launched to allow MDV LLP to directly provide information on the delivery of Manydown North.

The revised budgets for 2022/23 would be presented as part of the Annual budget and Medium-Term Financial Strategy scheduled to go to full council on 28^th February 2022.  The proposals would include the provision of up to £25mof loans to MDV LLP.  The loan would also be matched by Hampshire County Council to enable accelerated infrastructure at Manydown North.

With regards to Manydown South the dialog with the Local Planning Authority was ongoing in relation to the masterplan strategy and addressed site capacities and development yield.

The masterplan currently includes two secondary schools and four primary schools, employment proposals, health care campus locations and more detailed green infrastructure proposals.

The Chair invited visiting speaker Alex Lee to address the committee with his comments.  

Mr Lee thanked David Ainsworth and Rebecca Smith who recently met with him and Cllr Freeman to discuss a variety of issues such as displaced traffic rat running through local roads.  He also urged both Councils to mitigate against problems at the earliest opportunity.  He welcomed that the S106 Agreement had now been finalised, but the CMP put forward as the outline planning application stated that Roman Road would only be used until an on-site construction road was completed.  It was envisaged that the whole road would link to a junction at the B3400 at the Worting Road to a junction at the northern end of Roman Road this however seemed to have changed to the previous update given.   It was important to look at the impact of how the development was achieved versus the impact of those decisions on the local community.  He confirmed that over 500 residents had signed a petition calling on the developers to use a northern access point and the building of an internal road to support site traffic.

The Portfolio Holder for Finance and Major Projects responded to the comments made by the visiting speaker.  He thanked Mr Lee for his comments, and he was glad that he had been talking to Urban&Civic who were the right people to talk too.  They do listen to residents and fellow Councillors and therefore looked forward to receiving the petition to understand the concern of those residents.

The Project Director concurred with the Portfolio Holder and reiterated the importance that they continued to listen to the residents as the project transitioned to Urban&Civic.  The outline planning application provided an indicative plan for dealing with  construction traffic and Urban&Civic is now preparing the actual detail.  U&C are proposing to have a public drop in to share and discuss their proposals with residents.

The committee discussed the report and made the following comments which included:

·         Concurred with Mr Lee’s comments with regards to the concerns of the residents on the route of the construction traffic.

·         Highlighted that there was an existing access by Worting Wood Farm via the A339 which was used by the farm and the construction vehicles for the archaeological site investigations at Manydown.    It was felt that it would be a preferable option to use that road for construction traffic rather than disrupt Roman Road.

·         Strong feeling in Winklebury of the effect of the construction traffic to road safety and the potential of delays.

·         Sought clarification as to the reasons for the construction traffic to be routed down Roman Road and not from the A339.

·         Concern raised over the potential of a Hospital and a Lidl in the vicinity of Southern Manydown and the implications of emergency vehicles and operational vehicles sharing the same road network.

·         Welcomed Urban&Civic involvement in the project as they bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise.  However, it would still be the Council’s responsibility to develop it well with the minimal harm to the communities.

·         Welcomed the signing of the Section 106 Agreement.

The Chair invited David Ainsworth, Barry Crabb and Rebecca Smith to address the Committee with their presentation.

Barry Crabb explained that the construction traffic would be a combination of tradesman via car and small vans, equipment movement which would be delivered to the site and stay there until the work was completed and lastly the construction material delivery by smaller good vehicles and some heavy good vehicles.  They had undertaken an assessment using data which they continued to monitor but had estimated that for phase 1a and 1b over a 12 hour day the construction traffic would equate to less than 2% of the existing vehicle trips.

They continued to work with Hampshire County Council to bring forward the permanent site access junctions.  In addition, they were in discussions on temporary junctions dedicated for site traffic with a right turn lane on Roman Road and Roman Way so that the flow of traffic using the roads were not impeded.

They had considered a dedicated junction off the A339 directly into the site but there were several safety concerns such as visibility, flows, delays and safety aspects.  Therefore, the only practical solution was to use Roman Road and Roman Way and a lesser degree Worting Road in the first instance to serve the first key phase delivery.

They also advised that they had a desire to reduce the speed on Roman Road by designing interventions and in time a traffic regulation order to reduce the speed from 40 mph to at least 30 mph.

David Ainsworth spoke on the planning process and strategy.  He advised that the outline consent was for the entire site, the next step was the site wide strategies to be agreed, then to establish a phase to define phase 1a and 1b after approval then each individual parcel would come forward.

The Countryside Park development brief was an opportunity to cement the principles and vision.  The Park would be ecological led to improve the ecology on Manydown as well as balance the amenity for people to enjoy. 

Rebecca Smith addressed communication and engagement which involved attendance at regular community meetings and a drop-in session scheduled for the 17^th March.  A newsletter would be sent to 15,350 homes in March which would explain the master development approach including a map of the site and would detail contact information for various channels such as social media, telephone, email and the website.

David Ainsworth also expressed that they were keen for the Committee to visit the Urban&Civic site at Rugby in June as well as a site tour in the summer months on Manydown.

The committee discussed the presentation and made the following comments which included:

• Heartened that the construction traffic would be only 2% of the overall traffic flow along Roman Road.

• Happy that there were several temporary access junctions being planned and that the right-hand filter lanes were imperative.

• Would like to see information on the thought process for reducing the speed on Roman Road at the drop-in session.

• Glad that Urban&Civic were working with Hampshire County Council on reducing the speed on Roman Road to at least 30 mph.

• It was important that the management plan for the Country Park would be manageable and sustainable.  Would also like the plan to contain details on how it would be managed initially and long term. 

• Concern was expressed on the secondary school site and requested that the land would be secured for education and not developed for other purposes such as housing.

• Disappointed that there was no headlining strategy document contained in the presentation to include carbon footprint impact on construction, design, future living standard and water usage. 

• Thanked David Ainsworth and Rebecca Smith on their community engagement by attending various meetings with Councillors and residents.

• Requested that the Councillors work with Urban&Civic to include a question and answer section on the website to address residents’ concerns.

• Pleased with the vision and how the project was progressing.

• Suggested that the design principles be reviewed for Manydown South with the Committee having oversight so they can contribute.

• When the Manydown South project progressed, it was important to learn from concerns and issues from the Manydown North Development.

The committee resolved that, due to the confidential nature of the information to be discussed, the committee passed a resolution that, by virtue of paragraphs 3 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting.

On resumption of the meeting the Chair confirmed that members had discussed the confidential appendix in the report.

Resolved: That the Manydown Overview Committee:

·         notes the progress made on the Manydown Programme.

·         notes the MGC LLP Budget for 2022 at confidential appendix 1

·         following review of the contents of the report, provides comments for the consideration of the Manydown Executive Committee as recorded above in the minutes

The Project Director confirmed the suggested work programme and advised that the project team would arrange the Rugby Visit and the Manydown site visit.

He advised that June meeting would include an update on the planning promotion strategy for Manydown South including an overview of the proposed Regulation 18 submission to the Local Plan Update process.

The committee noted the work programme.

The meeting ended at 8.05 pm.

Chairman