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Planning Policies

The principle of future housing development at Barton Farm is now widely recognised in current and emerging planning policies. CALA believes that the Barton Farm site should come forward in order to address Winchester’s acute problems of a lack of affordable housing and to help meet the Government’s objectives of social cohesion, inclusion and the sustainable delivery of new homes.

Winchester District Development Framework – Core Strategy

Winchester City Council published its Preferred Options Core Strategy for public consultation in May 2009. This identifies Barton Farm as one of the District’s four strategic development allocations and the principal housing site for Winchester. The full document can be viewed here >>

Successive studies undertaken by the City Council have identified a huge unmet local need for housing in Winchester. Its draft Local Development Framework (LDF) identifies Barton Farm as the preferred option for meeting that need, because it offers a number of key advantages over alternatives:

• It focuses development where need is greatest - ie - Winchester City
• It is a highly accessible location, within walking distance of, and served by a new bus route to, the city centre
• It is a comprehensive scheme that enables physical and social infrastructure to be provided alongside a full range of homes of all sizes and tenures
• It will reduce pressures from developers to build elsewhere on back gardens and at other less sustainable locations

While the LDF process has still to be concluded, the need for housing will not diminish; indeed emerging research suggests it is increasing.

CALA Homes intends to submit an outline planning application before the end of this year. A possible timeline for the development of Barton Farm is shown below:

South East Plan

The South East Plan was published in May 2009. This sets housing provision in Winchester District at 612 homes per year, 275 of which (5500 during the plan period of 2006-26) are required to be found in the north of the District.

Information on the SEP can be found here >>

PREVIOUS APPLICATION

The Barton Farm site has a long planning history. Following its allocation in the adopted Winchester City Local Plan as a “Reserve Major Development Area”, CALA submitted a planning application for 2,000 homes in 2004. Following an appeal against non-determination this application went to a Public Inquiry in 2005.

The Inspector and Secretary of State acknowledged the merits of the proposals and accepted there were no technical reasons to prevent development. The Secretary of State also stated clearly that the scale of Winchester’s affordable housing crisis could not be ignored. However, he determined there was no compelling need to release the site at the time because housing supply was sufficient to meet targets set by the County Structure Plan.

Click here for a copy of the Secretary of State's decision. (PDF: 628kb)