Update from B&DBC as of this morning:

Today the B&DBC legal team will be instructed to serve notice on the developer for a temporary stop on use as a carpark for 28 days. If they breach that it is a criminal act and will be pursued in court.

They also have to immediately either remove or reduce the fence height to 1m, as it is adjacent to a highway.

Again, non-compliance is a criminal matter.

19 April 2010

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

Car Park, Station Approach, Whitchurch RG28 7ER - Proposed Temporal Car Park
As you are aware, the Railway Inn was demolished some 6 weeks ago and the site prepared for a temporary car park, Lochailort Investments Ltd applied for planning permission in December 2009 but has encountered some difficulty with Basingstoke and Deane concerning the principle of using this site for car parking. So much so, that last week Basingstoke and Deane Council issued us with an ultimatum that if we did not withdraw our application they were going to refuse it which seems both ludicrous and contrary to the immediate benefit for which this vacant site can now be put to use.

We are all fully aware of the car parking issues associated with the increased use of the station, and current lack of available and accessible parking. A car park in this location that is readily available will assist local businesses, residents and commuters and is a much needed facility. Both Network Rail and South West Trains recognise the necessity for additional car parking and Whitchurch is a priority station at which it should be provided.

This much has been recognised by B&D and is included as Policy 3.20 in the Local Plan. Policy D5 is also relevant and is an over-arching Policy towards residential development and other developments within settlements, including redevelopment proposals which contribute to social, economic and environmental well-being. Socially, the provision of a car park in this location will reduce the quantum of drop-off and pick-ups from the station as it will be easier for commuters to park and therefore it will reduce the journeys to and from the station by 50% for this category of commuter. The reduced amount of journeys will have a benefit to those residents concerned about traffic generation and therefore in environmental terms, it is a sustainable proposal.

There is no demonstrable harm as a result of this proposal as it provides substantial benefits to both the immediate vicinity and the wider community.

I would be very grateful if you could support me in my endeavours to provide a car park for the station and I would ask you to either email, Claire.cook@basinnstoke.gov.uk and/or Cllrkeith.watts@basingstoke.gov.uk (preferably both) or write to Claire or Keith C/o The Planning Department, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, Civic Centre, London Road, Basingstoke, Hants RG21 4HA expressing your thoughts on the matter.

Please quote the Planning Application reference no, BDB/72095 (withdrawn)
Although the application has been withdrawn, a new one will be submitted in the next couple of days and if you are keen to see the provision of additional car parking adjacent to the station, then please could you write to express your disappointment with the Council's current decision and provide your support for a new application.

If you copy me, hugo@lochailort-investments.com, into your emails or send me a copy of your letter I will keep you informed as to our progress.
Thank you for your assistance.

Yours faithfully
Hugo Haig
Lochailort Investments Ltd
Torrington House
111 Hare Lane
Claygate
Esher
Surrey KT10 0QY
E-mail: hugo@lochailort-investments.com
Tel: 01372 467 489
Mobile: 07983 608 208
Fax: 01372 464 271

The applicant chose to withdraw the application on the 14th April 2010 following notification that the Council were minded to refuse the proposal. There were three main areas of concern with the application, namely, highway safety, a lack of information to address planning policy requirements and a lack of proposed tree planting on the site.

I will add your email to the planning file for planning application BDB/72095. In the instance another planning application is received you will be notified and provided with the opportunity to comment.

Please note that any comments made under planning application BDB/72095 will not be transferred to any new planning application submitted.

1.10 ...will alleviate some of the problems relating to parking...for a temporary period"
...come on Newbury folks, come to Whitchurch. Now buzz off, we're building some houses.

I wouldn't be surprised if he (Haig) was there on Sunday for the Pub Race pleading for support.

Probably a good time for highlighting the application (poster?).

Surely a properly managed and planned car park on the site of the pub would...

The developer is quite clear: the site is for housing development with their proposal for a 'temporary' car park being just that - temporary.

~Andrew~

In the meantime just who would be using the carpark? Surely any road expense would have to recouped by a high capacity car park therefore luring in cars from other towns.

Who gains?
By letting the pub car park exists local people can gain. By building a big new car park to the north local people mainly lose out and longer term most definitely lose out.
IMO, most posters here seem to have lost sight of the bigger picture.

The problem is, what do local people gain?
...snip...
As for a large car park north of the town...I agree. Its a stepping stone for a Tesco town to be built.

I pass the station fairly frequently. I can see no empty car spaces.
...
why think in 20th century ways and pander to the very small number of people who want to drive to the station. Open up the pub car park but oppose the northern car park.

This seems a contradiction: the implication of no empty car spaces is that there is more than a small number of people who want to drive to the station.

The seller promoted the site as suitable for housing first, not as a community use (the current designation). An interested purchaser is known to have intended to purchase it as community use, knock the place down and build another community use facility. But a housing developer got the place.

What community use was intended? Not another pub surely.

The reality is, like it or not, it's now a car park.

All the more reason not to build the northern car park.
You've not expressed any opinion about the proposed northern car park. Do you think it's a good idea to build it?

The reality is, like it or not, it's now a car park.

On the car park aspect, personally I believe a temporary car park will simply attract more traffic which will place increased burden on the local roads. When the developer decides to build housing, where will all this traffic go? Where is the forward planning on this?
Instead there should be much greater emphasis on discouraging road travel.
This will do the opposite, hardly thinking for the 21st century.

ONE
The car park appeared open this morning, when I went to catch the 7:43am train. There were a half-dozen cars parked in the lot.

Again you making the mistake of examining a pub / car park issue myopically instead of looking at the broader long term future in which if the northern car park / Tescograd is built bodes ill for Whitchurch.

This 'Tescograd' idea seems to have grown over the weekend. If anything like it were to happen it would not be a result of a railway car park or the access road, it would be because the administration of Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council use their new found freedom to disperse major development away from Basingstoke towards Whitchurch and other smaller communities ruled by them. It is a case for everybody to get stuck in to the public consultation on the future of the District, currently the SHLAA..

Meanwhile we have an unused car park space which will IMO shift some cars away from parking on the road. It's madness not to use this car park.

I think you're missing the point. Right now it IS a car park. It might be 'illegal' but how long will that status last.
Face it, the pub has gone, a temporary new car park has appeared. Let people use it. Next year it just might be used for housing.

If the buyer has made a poor property choice...tough, nobody is entitled to make money, some you win, some you lose.

As of today it was being used again, 20 cars I spotted, nearly half full in 2 days.

Were going to need another car park soon, will 500 spaces be enough?

Incidently, if a pedestrian gets injured by a car leaving the car park, who is liable?

it is "better to die on one's feet than live on one's knees" as a community

It left me shocked that they could just manipulate that local authority. All it takes is perseverance, patience and the knowledge that you're dealing with planning officers who are overworked and go home at 5pm.

I spoke to a very helpful chap at the Planning Enforcement Office today...

He says that the Council are aware that the car park is in operation. When the developer was previously told to stop operating as a car park it was because there was only one exit/entry point which compromised highway safety. However, there are now two access points, so these grounds no longer stand.

Enforcement issues are now tied in with consideration of the planning application. This makes it all the more important for people to submit their comments either way.

Might open a tea and coffee wagon outside the station and a small stall selling fruit and sweets ...
Seems getting planning permission to run a business in Whitchurch is no longer required....
If they can open a car park without permission.