Background
Why are we doing this?
FACTS :
SMASH understand the need for new houses including affordable ones, but the shear number already built in the southern part of Medstead, over the last 9 years, has nearly doubled the number of dwellings here (From 325 to 650 )
In 2017 & 2018 in Medstead, there were more houses built in the village (133 & 151 respectively) than the TOTAL annual housing numbers that were allocated to the WHOLE of the South Downs National Park area that lies within the EHDC region!
The character of Medstead is changing from a quiet rural village to an urban dormitory town due to urban style settlements - urban creep
The A31 - Lymington Bottom and Boyneswood Road junctions are already at 92% capacity, resulting in traffic congestion and at busy times, gridlock.
Infrastructure - e.g. doctors, schools places, dentists, etc. are not keeping pace with growth and are already overstretched and overwhelmed
Wildlife and biodiversity are being devastated
Air quality is deteriorating due to the increase in the number of cars and is contrary to the aims of EHDC climate emergency policy
Medstead continues to be a primary target for speculative housing development.
4 of the Large Development Sites ( i.e. sites >600 houses) out of a total of 10 have been identified by EHDC for Medstead/Four Marks