PEOPLE living in East Hampshire are being urged to help update a plan that will touch the lives of people across large parts of the district.

A plan that sets out houses, employment sites and infrastructure in the parts of East Hampshire outside the South Downs National Park is to be reviewed – and residents will have the chance to have their say.

Areas inside the park – more than half of East Hampshire – will be covered by a separate plan being drawn up by the South Downs National Park Authority.

East Hampshire District Council’s (EHDC) existing local plan – a joint core strategy created with the national park authority – shows how many homes will be built, where they will go and what infrastructure should be provided to support it.

Adopted in 2014, the joint core strategy was described as “a long-term document that will shape and guide development in East Hampshire to 2028”.

However, new Government planning rules say all local plans must be reviewed every five years, meaning EHDC’s current plan will now be out of date by the middle of 2019.

As a result, work is already under way to gather evidence on the future need for homes, community facilities, pitches for gypsies and travellers, plots for travelling show people, and employment sites. The council will engage with and consult people as it draws the plan together.

Angela Glass, EHDC’s portfolio holder for planning, said: “Whether you’re trying to get on the housing ladder, looking for a job close to home, or use local shops, schools and roads – the local plan will affect you and your quality of life.

“This plan only covers areas of East Hampshire outside the South Downs National Park where we want to create sustainable towns and villages with the right blend of homes, jobs and facilities to match the needs of the community.

“To do this we need a plan which incorporates our residents’ local knowledge, concerns and understanding so we can plan successful, better-connected, sustainable communities.

“That’s why it’s so important that people join in with discussions and consultations about the local plan and have their say.”

Public discussions are being planned throughout this year on key parts of the local plan including infrastructure, housing, the environment and employment. A draft plan should be ready for consultation by the end of year.

Revising the local plan will also mean that existing and developing neighbourhood plans may have to change to align with new guidelines, which could mean more work and more engagement with those local communities.

Town and parish councillors and neighbourhood planning groups have been briefed on the issue this week.

Nicky Branch, chairman of the Alton Society who had a large input into Alton’s neighbourhood plan, said: “It is quite exasperating that the Government should decide to ignore the efforts of district and local councils, such as EHDC and Alton Town Council, who took seriously the work of creating viable and sustainable development plans lasting through to 2028 and, as a result, had them securely in place (unlike many councils) until this latest edict.

“Local development plans will now have to be up-dated every five years, with Alton’s current neighbourhood plan expiring in 2019 instead of 2028; and a new plan will start back-dated to 2017, and lasting to 2036 with five-yearly updates required. There is some realism in this, in that supplies and demands are changing rapidly in a technology age, but the lack of firm, thoughtful, long-term plans for the future will surely make us wonder whether we are going back to a stop-start developers’ free-for-all.

“There are sensible bits in the new proposals, so that forward planning of infrastructure and community facilities will be included, to provide, hopefully, a more holistic approach to development.

“And EHDC’s intention to include all aspects of its updated development plan rather than in separate parts one, two and three must make sense. However, it will take a huge amount of work by EHDC to have something ready in 2019, and quite a bit of extra work for some with local plans, such as Alton’s.”

Nicky added: “Hopefully the new housing targets, now to be set centrally by HMG will not come down too harshly on EHDC, which volunteered quite sensibly for highish numbers back in 2014. Indeed Alton, which took well over its proper allocation and is providing a larger number of windfall sites than expected, should, if there is any justice, be spared from the need to make significant changes to its existing neighbourhood plan.

“Nevertheless, we should not be surprised if Mike Heelis and his stalwart team (and the hundreds of residents who took part) will now be asked to come back and sort out an unfair imposition on councils at all levels, including Alton’s. They had acted in good faith to prepare promptly plans to develop their neighbourhoods sustainably and avoid unwanted speculative development. They now feel badly let down.”