Mind the gap: That’s the message concerned residents sounded to planners on Monday amid plans for up to 125 new homes on the border of Horndean and Clanfield.

And there was another plea for would-be developers to provide infrastructure before any bricks are laid with a potential 500 homes in the pipeline for greenfield sites around Clanfield.

The latest scheme to come before EHDC is an outline application by Gleeson Homes to develop the Charity Farm site south of Drift Road. The firm’s agent and architect gave a presentation to Horndean Parish Council about their plans for the site, which has not been allocated for housing in the draft Local Plan.

Persistent concerns about the combined impact of piecemeal developments on the local infrastructure were aired along with worries about flooding and traffic speeds.

“The gap between Horndean and Clanfield is vanishing before our eyes,” said Cllr Teresa Attlee while a Drift Road resident asked why the application was even being considered when it’s not an allocated site.

Charity Farm Development Clanfield
A provisional design for the T-shaped site south of Drift Road on the Clanfield/Horndean border. (Richards Urban Design)

Another resident added: “You developers say you’re going to build the infrastructure – why not build it first?

“They get permission to build houses and don’t really do the infrastructure. I think they should do that.”

Fellow Drift Road resident, Brian Foster, also flagged up the futility of financial contributions from developers after two new estates on Green Lane swelled the village’s population by 25 per cent.

He said: “The contributions for those developments have made no impact on the doctor’s surgery.

“Nothing you will do can improve the facilities there as they just haven’t got the facilities and room.”

One frequently raised concern at the meeting is the “cumulative impact” that piecemeal developments will have on local amenities and infrastructure.

It’s not unrealistic to suggest Clanfield could be looking at more than 500 new homes when housing on allocated sites is added to speculative schemes like Charity Farm and the Barratts bid for around 180-200 dwellings on Sunderton Fields.

“The failure of the EHDC to get a Local Plan legally ratified means it’s open season for speculative developers,” said Clanfield Parish Council chair, Cllr Chris Paterson.

Developments off Green Lane around a decade ago swelled Clanfield’s population by around a quarter.

People who attended the Jubilee Hall meeting heard that Gleeson Homes are not developers but “land promoters” who work on schemes before handing them over to the likes of Barratts and other housebuilders.

Their agent, Hannah Pearce, and master planner, Colin Richards, told HPC the scheme had been scaled back in size and height due to feedback from residents, HPC and EHDC with around 140 homes originally planned.

Mr Richards said: “We were asked to try and reduce the impact and amount of development on the site and also making sure we had suitable access from Drift Road.”

Affordable housing would make up 40 per cent of the development while a community orchard, open space, and mix of homes have been provisionally proposed, with the pair making the presentation being sympathetic to the concerns of villagers and HPC.

As the application is outline, it only seeks to establish the principle of development on the site.

Horndean Parish Council will pass comment on the scheme when its planning committee meets at 6.30pm next Monday in Jubilee Hall.