EAST Hampshire District Council claims it sent a letter to Hampshire County Council two years ago telling them money given to EHDC for installing vital safety measures on the Headley Road at Passfield had been collected. The county council maintains it didn't know £20,000 had been received by EHDC and that is why there has been no plan to install any safety measures on the road. But an EHDC spokesman said: "I spoke to an officer in Development Control at HCC and she confirmed that they had received a letter from us back in 2005 saying that the £20,000 had been received and was ready for their use. "She also said that the reason the money had not been spent was because there were legal problems acquiring the commonland to make the refuge for the traffic island." Laura McCulloch, senior engineer at Highways Development Control, HCC, said: "Our solicitors are currently discussing the situation with the National Trust. The problem we have is that commonland cannot be highway, or so we believe. If the land is to become highway we would have to provide a piece of land the same size adjacent to the commonland as a replacement. "This is a difficulty as there is no suitable highway land to offer as commonland in the vicinity. Our solicitor seems to have come across some case law which may suggest that highway rights can exist on commonland – but we have yet to have this confirmed. "Until we can get to the bottom of this very complicated issue we cannot progress spending the contribution." An HCC spokesman said: "EHDC took it upon themselves to enter into a legal agreement to which we were not signatories. They are permitted to do this as the planning authority, but cannot spend the money themselves on highway works. We were not aware that the agreement had been completed until last month or that they are holding the money. "If HCC had been in receipt of the money three years ago then we'd have done as we are doing now, and that is to investigate the options available within the £20,000 budget to spend in that area. We are bound by the Section 106 into spending the money allocated in the area or to give the money back to the developer. "We have to take into account that the developer funding is £20,000 so it would also depend on if the funding provided is enough to respond exactly to Councillors specific requests on improvements to Passfield Road." It is still unclear whether the investigation into installing a traffic island was as a result of HCC knowing abut the £20000 or whether Hampshire Highways had other reasons for looking into the safety measure. Nikki Young, co-ordinator of the Save The Passfield Play Park campaign said: "This whole situation is a complete farce. Everyone is blaming everyone else and meanwhile nothing has be done about the road. To be honest I have lost faith that anything will ever be done." Miss Young also claims that more developers funding was given to EHDC for safety measures on the Passfield Road when the old Passfield Oak Pub site was being redeveloped, and that it is mentioned in the planning application of September 27, 2002. The Passfield campaigner said: "I have discovered that in the section 106 agreement for the redevelopment of the site of the old Passfield Pub £10,000 was given to the EHDC by developers to improve pedestrian safety on the Headley Road at Passfield. "This means that £30,000 has been been available for at least the last two years to improve the road at Passfield – and still nothing has been done. "What are HCC and EHDC playing at? While they are blundering around blaming each other for the work not getting done, the work is not getting done. I wish they'd just pull their finger out and get the work done." Meanwhile, the consultation process to decide whether to keep the Passfield play park has begun. Street care and operations manager Brian Turner said: "We have decided to have have a deadline of Friday, May 18, for the return of the forms as we believe the people of Passfield do not want a long, drawn out process."
