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Help Save Barn Meadow
This beautiful water meadow in Alresford is under imminent threat from housing development
UPDATED 6 APRIL 2025
The April Neighbourhood Plan Committee meeting has been cancelled. We will post details of the new date once it has been announced.
The committee has said that this meeting will be the one when it will make its recommendations about which sites the housing should be built on. Please consider coming along to see how the decision making process is carried out.
Have you seen our page about potential future protection through a Local Green Space designation? – link here
How Do I Object?
The Community Consultation survey has now closed.
Whatever the outcome, we anticipate the need to take further action to protect Barn Meadow, so please get in contact with us at:
When Did the Survey Close?
Midnight on Tuesday 17 December 2024.
What was the outcome of the Community
Consultation?
We are awaiting the outcome from the town council’s Neighbourhood Plan Committee and have been told that there will be a report on the responses to the consultation at its April meeting. Unfortunately, this meeting has been cancelled. We will post details as soon as we have them.
Please join us at the meeting if you can.
Why Protect Barn Meadow?
There are many reasons to oppose any development of Barn Meadow. We believe that it is the least appropriate of all the sites proposed for housing in Alresford, due to:
- Flooding
- Wildlife disturbance and displacement and loss of habitat
- Pollution to River Itchen Catchment
- Road Safety at proposed Winchester Road site entrance
- ‘High Sensitivity Red’ Landscape next to public rights of way
- Local Green Space consultation response remains outstanding
- All this impact and habitat destruction would only deliver 9% of the housing allocation required for the town, so other sites would still be required
Is There More I can Do to Help?
Whatever the outcome, we anticipate the need to take further action to protect Barn Meadow and we will again need your help and support.
Please also consider attending the meetings of the town council’s Neighbourhood Plan Advisory Committee – see link. This will help ensure accountability and transparency in the process.
Please get in contact with us at:
With the emerging Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS), Barn Meadow on the River Arle floodplain represents a location of not insignificant importance to local nature recovery, and mitigation to climate change.
Aspirations to expand the urban conurbation further into the floodplain should carefully consider the impact on biodiversity, river water quality and resources, exacerbation to flood risk and conflict with other priorities such as the LNRS.
The River Arle is one of the most biodiverse and sensitive reaches within the Itchen catchment, an internationally renowned chalk river and Special Area of Conservation. Future land use changes should prioritise protection and recovery of this rich natural heritage.”
Martin De Retuerto
Director of Nature Recovery
Hampshire & Isle of Wight
Wildlife Trust
Key Reasons to Save Barn Meadow:
· Wildlife disturbance – the water meadow is surrounded by protected SSSI + SAC sites – see link to wildlife page
· ‘High Sensitivity’ landscape next to popular local rights of way, including the Wayfarer’s Way and the Alre Valley Trail – see link to download the trail guide
· Floodplain site – flooding issues + loss of future nature recovery, nutrient mitigation and other beneficial floodplain opportunities – see link to flooding page
· Road safety locally – The proposed access on Winchester Road raises a number of safety concerns and Drove Lane is a narrow lane with no pavement, busy with walkers and cyclists – see link to road safety page
· On an objective comparison of each of the sites, we believe that Barn Meadow is the least appropriate place proposed for housing in the Neighbourhood Plan’s search for the next 100 houses to be built in Alresford after the Sun Lane development – see link to all the proposed housing allocation sites in the town. Even after all the impact and habitat destruction, this floodplain site would only deliver 9% of the housing allocation required for the town, so other sites would still be required
Where is Barn Meadow?
Barn Meadow is the former water meadow on Drove Lane, Alresford, Hampshire.
It lies at the point where the River Alre/Arle meets the River Itchen.
Who are the Friends of Barn Meadow?
We are a loosely-formed community-group campaigning to protect this key part of Alresford’s rich agricultural history, beautiful landscape and wildlife habitat.
Can I be a Friend of Barn Meadow?
Of course you can!
The Community Consultation has now closed, but our campaign continues.
Whatever the outcome, we anticipate the need to take further action to protect Barn Meadow, so please get in contact with us at:
“Don’t Worry, They’ll Never Get Planning Permission to Build on the Water Meadow!”
We have heard this from so many local people we speak to!
The reality is that the proposal is being given every consideration. We believe that if there is not a resounding rejection of the plans to build on this site, then Barn Meadow will be allocated for housing in the Neighbourhood Plan.
That’s why it has been so important that so many people have responded to the Community Consultation.
Thank you to everyone who has played their part so far.
What is the Neighbourhood Plan?
The New Alresford Neighbourhood Plan aims to set planning policy to guide future development in the town, set future planning policies and, crucially, will determine which sites are chosen for housing development in Alresford from 2030.
Winchester City Council’s Local Plan is a separate, overlapping plan. It requires New Alresford to find greenfield sites for 100 more houses. That’s in addition to the 302 houses currently being built at Sun Lane.
Another 100 Homes on top of the Sun Lane Development?
Everyone knows that there is a shortage of housing in this country and we all want the people we care about to have somewhere to live. At the same time, we love the river and surrounding countryside. It’s part of what makes Alresford so special to us all.
‘No development anywhere ever’ is simply not an option. Instead, we believe that a balance must be struck so that we choose ‘the right developments, in the right places’.
In Alresford, this leaves us with some very tough choices, but on the objective grounds set out on this website, we believe the Barn Meadow floodplain site is the least appropriate of all the options available.
If you agree with us, please join our campaign as we follow up to the winter 2024 Community Consultation.
What is the Community Consultation?
To ensure the Neighbourhood Plan reflects the wishes of the whole of Alresford, the town council has carried out a number of Community Consultations. There have been three so far.
The latest consultation has sought your response to the proposed policies of the Plan and will be used to determine where the next housing developments will be in Alresford from 2030.
The consultation survey closed on 17 December 2024. We are now awaiting the results of the community’s response and are closely following the town council’s Neighbourhood Plan Advisory Committee, the steering group for the emerging plan.
Please come along to the committee’s meetings to ensure accountability and transparency of this process – see link to meetings schedule. The next meeting is at 6.00pm on the evening of Tuesday 18 March 2025 at Arlebury Park.
We will provide full details here as soon as they are released.
How can I get more information?
For more information or an informal chat about how you might be able to help us, please contact us at:
It has been a successful year, with the first brood fledging already.
Development and disturbance of the floodplain would be very detrimental to this growing Swift colony.”
Tim Norriss
Lead Trustee, Hampshire Swifts
Winter groundwater inflows and surface water run off during heavy rainfall is resulting in large quantities of soil running off the building site and into the river which feeds into the River Avon Special Area of Conservation (SAC).
Once the soil is lost to the river, these low energy chalk streams cannot wash it away, resulting in long term ecological damage”
Alex Deacon
Catchment Partnership Manager
Wessex Rivers Trust
Sites Protected for Biodiversity
65% of the site boundary is a SSSI
– a Site of Special Scientific Interest, designated by Natural England because of the important landscape, habitat and the rare species of animals and plants it contains
Of all the sites proposed for housing in Alresford, Barn Meadow is the only one on the Priority Habitats Inventory and the only one that borders SSSI or SAC sites
55% of the site boundary is an SAC
– a Special Area of Conservation, designated by the government’s Joint Nature Conservation Committee
SACs give higher level protection than SSSIs and protect habitats and species that are of the highest importance at European level
The meadow features on the Priority Habitats Inventory and is characterised as Good quality semi improved grassland, meaning it has good potential for restoration to species-rich meadow
Barn Meadow offers vital connectivity to the wildlife of the SSSI and SAC sites which have been designated for species including:
Otter
Water vole
White-clawed crayfish
If you are looking at this site on a mobile phone, you can see the full maps by turning your phone to give a landscape view
Key Dates
AFTER
Easter
Neighbourhood Plan Committee Meeting
Although the committee has chosen to review the housing site allocations in a working group behind closed doors, the Neighbourhood Plan Committee meetings are open to all the community.
The council has cancelled the April meeting until after Easter, with no new date scheduled.
We understand that at the next meeting the committee will discuss which sites will be allocated for housing within your neighbourhood plan and are likely to make their decision.
DEC
17
TUESDAY 17 DECEMBER 2024
Community Consultation is now CLOSED
Thank you for your fantastic support
DEC
17
Online Community Consultation
– DEADLINE EXTENDED –
Please encourage your family and friends to respond. The consultation is open to the whole community, so there is no age requirement to be eligible to respond
Nov
21
Community Consultation
THURSDAY 21 NOVEMBER 2024
Have your say in person – open to all the community
The Swan Hotel, West Street, New Alresford – 12.00 – 8.00pm
left of the river on Drove Lane
