East Hampshire: A Development Wild West of Tory Making

East Hampshire: A Development Wild West of Tory Making
By Dominic Martin, Parliamentary Candidate for East Hampshire, Alex Ehrmann, Hampshire County Council candidate for Alton Rural, and Emily Young, Alton Town candidate

People across East Hampshire are fed up with a planning system that too often ignores those who live here, piles pressure on roads and services, and leaves towns and villages fighting speculative development case by case.

This is not an accident. It is the result of years of Conservative failure at district and county level. After 28 years of Conservative control, East Hampshire is increasingly resembling a Wild West of development, with growing pressure on roads and services, and communities left feeling powerless.

The lack of an up-to-date Local Plan has been a major part of the problem. It has left East Hampshire vulnerable to speculative development and weakened the council’s ability to secure the roads, schools, healthcare and transport links the area needs. Instead of shaping development properly, Tory councils have too often been left surrendering to developers’ proposals.

The Conservatives cannot wash their hands of this. They have been in charge. They are responsible for the planning chaos that residents now endure. It is simply not credible for Conservative candidates to campaign against the consequences of their own party’s complacency, lack of leadership, and fear of difficult decisions.

East Hampshire faces real planning constraints. Around 57 per cent of the district lies within the South Downs National Park, with further areas subject to other important protections and constraints. Yet Tory-run councils have failed to plan for that reality. Too much of the remaining land is vulnerable to speculative development - including valuable farmland, chalk stream headwaters, wildlife habitats, historic landscapes, and the countryside people cherish.

Infrastructure has not kept pace. Roads are clogged, GP surgeries are overstretched, schools are under pressure and public transport is not good enough. Residents are entitled to ask why development keeps being pushed through while the infrastructure needed to support it is treated as someone else’s problem.

There is a better way - and Liberal Democrats are already fighting for it. Development should be planned around and with communities, not imposed on them. It should come with the roads, school places, healthcare and transport links people need, and it should respect the character of our towns and villages, protect the environment and deliver genuinely affordable homes for local people.

That means improving local planning, fighting for a fairer housing target that reflects East Hampshire’s real constraints, and making sure local people are heard before decisions are made - not just expressing concern once the damage is done. The answer is not more Conservative candidates pretending to oppose the mess their party has presided over. The answer is Liberal Democrats who will fight for infrastructure first, protect our chalk streams and countryside, and stand up for the people who live here.

Alex Ehrmann said: “Residents can see what is happening for themselves: piecemeal but significant development, more traffic on rural roads and growing pressure on public services. Conservatives now talk tough about overdevelopment, but they were the ones in charge while this planning failure unfolded. The villages of Alton Rural, such as Four Marks and Medstead, Bentley, Binsted and Chawton, to name but a few, are at risk of being completely overwhelmed on every level by proposed, unthought through and opportunistic developments. We cannot keep developing and destroying our villages unfettered. We need relevant, proportionate development  with appropriate supporting infrastructure strategies that actually work for our communities.”

Emily Young said: “Liberal Democrats are working with local groups to protect the chalk stream sources that supply Alton’s water and resist the damage caused by overdevelopment and over-extraction. Alton is a historic town with a medieval street pattern, and its roads cannot simply absorb more and more traffic because Conservatives have failed to plan ahead. Our sewage treatment works are already at capacity, and residents have been left worried about flooding and the reliability of local water supply. We need safer cycling routes and better transport, but above all we need a planning system that respects Alton’s heritage, protects the environment and stops asking residents to pay the price for Tory failure.”

This election is a chance to turn the page on years of Conservative failure. If voters want more of the same, they can vote Conservative and get more drift, more excuses and more developer-led chaos. But if they want homes, jobs and infrastructure to be planned properly across Hampshire, instead of more piecemeal development forced onto towns and villages, then it is time for change.

That change is the Liberal Democrats.