HCC Consultation on LCWIP

The aim of Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans is to enable a planned and long-term approach to improving local routes for cycling and walking. A team of volunteers and PeCAN trustees reviewed the LCWIP proposals for Petersfield because we are keen to make our town safer and fully accessible for both cyclists and pedestrians, so that cycling or walking is a practical choice for everyday journeys. We have made some suggestions to address some omissions and problems.

Our major concerns were:

• Gaps in school travel routes
• Lack of integration with identified development sites for housing
• Concerns with one proposed route through the centre of Petersfield which required cyclists to negotiate four high traffic junctions
• While numerous improvement were proposed, these were only described in a superficial manner, without any clear commitment to make further progress

Access the full set of PeCAN’s comments here

Planning application to build 85 new houses and flats on the Buckmore Farm site in Petersfield

Buckmore Farm is situated off the Winchester Road in Petersfield. It is a green field site which was identified for development in the Petersfield Neighbourhood Plan in 2015 and outline planning permission with granted in 2019. Detailed plans were made available for public consultation in September.

PeCAN has submitted an objection to this application because when we reviewed the drawings and documents, we found quite a few problems, which are briefly summarised:

• Inadequate measures to protect wildlife using this site, which includes the rare barbastelle bat, and disappointing proposals for Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG)
• Narrow paths will discourage walking and cycling on the new site, while a lack of pavements will force some residents to share access roads with cars. The facilities for cycle storage are impractical
• There is scope to improve the energy efficiency measures, for example by considering the embodied carbon and life-cycle impacts of building materials and methods, and by fitting solar PV panels

The plans and objections from the Town Council and other organisations, including our own objection, can be found on the South Downs planning website under this reference: 24/03588.