Fathoms Reach
Residents in Fathoms Reach reported last week that a selected number of houses along that road have been made offers in excess of their properties' current value by a housing developer, who needs to bulldoze those properties in order to gain access to land behind them. What is shocking the residents who have reported this, is that, when they bought their Fathoms Reach homes not so long ago, they were told that the then developer was not allowed to develop the land immediately behind them. This gave them, as future home owners, the assurance that this land would remain 'open land' i.e. undeveloped, not built on.
For what reason did Havant Borough Council Planning Officers prevent the then developer from building on that piece of land? Was it to provide a buffer zone between the new development and the agricultural land behind it? If so, why didn't HBC establish this 'open' space in a permanent way? Or did they already plan for another developer to develop that land? If so, wouldn't the former developer have a reason to complain now? For us ordinary residents, we must ask these questions because this new proposed development must make any home owner feel extremely anxious when buying a property which they trust has certain surroundings which have had implied conditions.
On a sustainable environmental theme, it is disturbing that, when our natural environment is increasingly under threat and residents are looking for confidence in our future habitat, a developer can expect so much money that it is worth their efforts - and presumeably the Council's remuneration for the final deal - to bull doze perfectly good, modern housing in order to build on land that currently provides a potential green 'buffer zone' habitat. Some of us are also beginning to wonder just how much of the money, that will inevitably come to Havant BC's coffers from the various proposed development deals on Hayling Island currently underway, will be returned to Hayling Island. The figures that I've heard are, by anyone's reckoning, astronomical. We must remember that our taxes are already a regular income for both Hampshire and Havant Councils. It is the taxpayers who maintain our Councils and their responsibilities must surely be, in the first instance, to the taxpayers.
