Trading the Abbotts Barton parkland against land at the 'Cadet Site' is not trading like for like!

The Winchester City Councillors are proposing to use the 'Cadet Site' area as an area to compensate for the loss of play area in the parks of Abbotts Barton. (Their proposals are available for viewing on the 27 February meeting page.)

However, this trade is not welcomed by parents in Abbotts Barton.

No new insights at the Cabinet (Housing Delivery) Committee meeting

Today we had the Cabinet (Housing Delivery) Committee meeting and Abbotts Barton was talked about for about an hour with two speakers from the general public. Nothing has changed on the proposed housing development plans but the committee will have to explain a bit better why the Cadet Site apparently isn't suitable for building houses and also what exactly they want to do with the garages in Abbotts Barton. The Abbotts Barton Planning Framework was agreed as a guide. More detail about what was said will be in the meeting minutes from the Council when they are added to the meeting page.

Cabinet (Housing Delivery) Committee meeting 27 February

The council has published several files about the planned housing development in Abbotts Barton for their meeting on Wednesday, 27 February 2013. Please take a look for yourself to see what is on the agenda. All files can be accessed from the council's meeting page.

Support of two-thirds majority for Cadet Site

Parallel to the Save The Parks petition we have had another one going round the households in Abbotts Barton to find out how many people would support new houses on the so called Cadet Site (near the football club): a two-thirds majority of Residents (so far) back the use of the Cadet Site for the Council Housing Proposals destined for the Parks. Please read our community proposal issued to the Council Friday 22 February.

500+ people sign petition!

Since we have started with the petitions in early February, both online and on paper, signatures have been coming in steadily: to date we have had over 500 people sign to oppose housing developments on the designated sites S7 and S4!

Today we have sent a letter to Winchester City Council detailing why we believe these specific housing developments would be detrimental to Abbotts Barton. Please find a copy for you to read here.

If you haven't done so yet, please sign our petition to save the parks in Abbotts Barton - and don't forget to share either! Thank you!

Thank you so much for supporting our campaign!

Winchester is short of play areas already!

The Winchester City Council's Open Space Strategy 2012/13 has this information about available land for play in Winchester (PDF file - see top of page 106):

Adequacy of Land for Play and Sports (Hectares)

Local Plan Requirement for Play:	30.00
Existing Area for Play:	17.88

According to that Winchester is 12.12 Hectares short of land suitable for play!

If you haven't done so yet please sign our petition to save the parks in Abbotts Barton - and don't forget to share either! Thank you!

Possible delay in evaluation of consultations feedback

In today's Focus from the Liberal Democrat Party was a short article mentioning the consultations about the Council Housing development plans in Abbotts Barton, saying that the City Council housing bosses are now looking at the suggestions made. New plans were to be presented by the end of February, but apparently it looks like more work is necessary to incorporate the feedback. There could be a delay until March.

If you haven't done so yet please sign our petition to save the parks in Abbotts Barton - and don't forget to share either! Thank you!