Planning and facilities in King’s Worthy

Another doorstep conversation about planning today – this time in King’s Worthy.

Unsurprisingly, the first item to come up was the Elan development. I remember once when Michaela and I were driving through King’s Worthy saying to her – ‘There’s been quite a controversial development here – see if you can spot it!’ It didn’t prove too difficult. I’m a great believer in the importance of design and, if selected, would want to work closely with Liberal Democrat councillors on both councils, and the public, both to achieve high quality design for our towns and villages, and to campaign with them against inappropriate development.

The other topic we talked about was the need for extra facilities to go alongside new developments. The member I was talking to explained that while the population of King’s Worthy had doubled over the last 20 years, the available facilities and infrastructure hadn’t.

Unfortunately, this is all too common in rural areas of Hampshire and a clear consequence of the shift of powers away from local communities and local authorities and the restriction in their ability to have a true say in how their areas are run.