Friends of Barn Meadow

09/04/2026

Another Town Council Meeting Cancelled

Regrettably, New Alresford Town Council has cancelled the Extraordinary Meeting scheduled to discuss the emerging Neighbourhood Development Plan.

Instead, NATC will hold a meeting the following day, where it is anticipated that the public will be excluded from discussions.

We will keep you informed as best as we can under challenging circumstances.

Thank you for your continued interest. Please don't let these set-backs dampen your enthusiasm and commitment to see a fair neighbourhood plan for Alresford.

17/03/2026

Transport Review - RED Rating for Barn Meadow

Amongst a host of other issues, we have questioned the credibility of Barn Meadow being one of two sites to receive a 'neutral/no effect' rating for the Transport theme in the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) - while the others were all judged to be much less suitable.

That made no sense to us as it's obviously the furthest site from the town centre and faces a range of challenges including road safety.

Happily, the experts at Hampshire Highways agreed with us in their High Level Transport Review. Not only did they give Barn Meadow a 'RED' rating overall for site access and costings, they also acknowledged that it was ranked as the worst or joint-worst site in every single category using the Department for Transport's connectivity scale - making Barn Meadow the worst site for connectivity and therefore the least sustainable.

It took almost a year and the intervention of the Information Commissioner's Office to release the SEA report from NATC. We are mightily glad that we persisted. Otherwise, this information would never have been reviewed - and instead of being recognised as the worst site for access and transport connectivity, it would have remained as the joint best!

Have a look at this page of the website for more details: https://savebarnmeadow.co.uk/road-safety/

The Transport Review also revealed a 3rd different access point is now being proposed. We are working on the basis that the previous entrances on Drove Lane and further up Wi******er Road were judged to be too unsafe.

This latest vehicle access point is right above a naturally forming pond and stream on Flood Zone 2 & 3, just metres from the SSSI and Special Area of Conservation. Have a look at the location for yourself. It's all starting to look a little desperate.

12/03/2026

Meeting Cancelled

We understand that the Neighbourhood Plan Committee meeting, scheduled for 17 March has been cancelled.

We are hopeful that this will lead to an honest and open discussion of the neighbourhood plan process at the next meeting of the town council on Tuesday 24 March.

Please keep the 24th free, pending release of the meeting agenda at the end of next week.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid0t7UZtDYiL81Np7EP8c4YWf3rgk24WFpfNbEB6pSD23raA4bH638ht9oTReED4i6Tl&id=61568975494321

09/03/2026

Update - Meeting and Council 'Statement'

Thank you so much to everyone who came to the council meeting on 24 February. It was a fantastic turnout; yet again demonstrating the strength of feeling there is in the community about the Alresford neighbourhood plan.

Your presence at meetings and responses to consultations makes a real difference in the decision-making process. Please continue to show your support in these vital ways.

With so many of you at the meeting and some searching questions asked during public participation, the council was made to consider its response very carefully. Happily, the motion to withdraw the housing allocations from the plan fell flat and was not agreed.

The result is that the town council will keep control of the all-important development site decisions for the time being. However, there is genuine concern that the delayed neighbourhood plan process could lead to 'speculative development' in Alresford; the very first thing the plan should be protecting the town from.

We will take further advice and report back on that awful prospect soon.

Town Council 'Statement'?

The week ended with a statement purporting to be from New Alresford Town Council. It was a response to questions and comments from the community in relation to the ICO's finding that NATC had unlawfully failed to comply with our freedom of information request. See: https://savebarnmeadow.co.uk/plan-detail-foi/

Amongst other things, it made the false claim that our information request had not been with NATC for the vast majority of the 320 days that the ICO ruled that it had. The time limit for the council to respond to our request was 20 working days.

It appears that the statement was issued with neither the agreement nor the knowledge of any member of the town council.

We immediately published evidence showing that the claim made in the statement was false. Nevertheless, the statement remained on NATC's social media account for almost a week, before quietly being withdrawn, but without a notice correcting the misleading information or stating that it had been formally retracted.

If the council does not put the record straight publicly, then we intend to.

19/02/2026

Progress at Last?

It is far too early to know whether this is good news, but the items on this council agenda look to be the first admission from NATC that the neighbourhood plan process has not been dealt with in the way that it should have.

The immediate questions we have include:

- Why has it taken over 2 years for the council to acknowledge our legitimate concerns about this flawed process?
- What has changed recently to overcome the determination of elements within NATC to prevent the process from being carried out in a democratic, transparent, and fair fashion?
- How much damage has already been done?
- What will the effects of the delayed neighbourhood plan be?
- Who is responsible for the failings that have led to these questions even being contemplated?
- How much has this flawed process cost you, the Alresford residents?

This is an extract from the full agenda, which you will find elsewhere.

It would be fantastic to see lots of residents at the meeting - 7.00pm at Arlebury Park on Tuesday 24 February.

13/02/2026

New Web Page Added - "Most Sensitive" Landscape

Thank you for all the current interest in the town council's role in the neighbourhood plan. Even though it doesn't show up on his page, there is a lot of comment on the main community group - All Things New Alresford - please consider contributing your comments to that, in order that the wider Alresford community can gauge the feeling behind our campaign: https://www.facebook.com/groups/allthingsnewalresford

Today we have added a new page, detailing Barn Meadow's 'Most Sensitive' landscape categorisation. This isn't our description of the meadow, but that of Wi******er City Council's professional landscape assessors. We are happy to agree with them.

Please have a look at the new page for yourself and let us know if we've missed anything:

The last Wi******er Local Plan conducted a full appraisal of the landscape sensitivity of the sites that had been put forward for development. We have marked the currently proposed development sites on the map from that report. Barn Meadow is outlined in red, the other current sites in blue. It is c...

11/02/2026

Nothing says "we're 100% confident about the information we're working with in this public exercise" more than breaking the law for almost a year to keep that information from the public.

For a copy of the ICO's Decision Notice against NATC and further details of just some of our concerns about the town council's role in the neighbourhood plan process, please visit https://savebarnmeadow.co.uk/plan-detail-foi/

https://www.hampshirechronicle.co.uk/news/25834950.hampshire-council-ruled-broken-open-government-rules/

New Alresford Town Council has been found guilty of breaching laws on open government.

20/01/2026

Upper Itchen Restoration CIC Evening Event
7.00pm this Thursday, 22 January at Bishop's Sutton Village Hall

This will be an opportunity to hear about the UIR group's vision and projects and to get involved.

Speakers for the evening include:

- Directors of the UIR CIC
- Professor Peter Gregory and Tom Gregory - talking about their plans for the Alreside Meadow river project
- Jim Murray MBE (River Action UK, actor) - talking about Project White Hart's mission to save England's chalk stream salmon from extinction
+ an opportunity to find out more about volunteering and for networking to share interests and to offer ideas and expertise.

An opportunity to hear all about the UIR CIC, their vision and their projects and to find out how you can get involved.

05/01/2026

Happy New Year 🎈2026 promises to be the crucial year for the Alresford neighbourhood plan. We will step up our fight to ensure that the process becomes the democratic, transparent and fair one it should be.

Our objectives for 2026 are to:

🕵️ Break the town council's wall of secrecy surrounding the neighbourhood plan process

🔎 Ensure truthful, accurate and full information is used to form the evidence base for all decisions

⚖️ Ensure that the wishes of the Alresford community are respected by NATC's Neighbourhood Plan Committee

🎯 Hold those responsible to account if this does not happen

and, ultimately, to ensure that not only is Barn Meadow saved from development, but that it is protected into the future through designation as Local Green Space 🍃🦉🦦💦🍃

Here's our guide to Local Green Space:
https://savebarnmeadow.co.uk/future-protection/

23/11/2025

Show Your Support for Nature - It takes just seconds! 💦🌳🦉

As the Bill rumbles towards becoming law, the protections proposed by the Lords have been ignored by a majority in the Commons.

Please show your support for nature today before the Bill returns to the Lords this week.

These protections mean cleaner water, reduced flood risk, and green spaces that support your health and wellbeing. They also help ensure development is built in a way that works for people and nature.

Without them, our water, our safety, and the places we rely on could all suffer.

👉 What you can do:
Use the Wildlife Trust's quick e-action to contact our MP. The more pressure we can keep up, the more likely it is we can win vital changes for nature, even at this late stage.
https://action.wildlifetrusts.org/page/180301/action/1

Here’s where things stand with the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, and why your voice matters 📢

Right now, two vital protections in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill are at risk - measures that would help safeguard wildlife habitats and protect our precious chalk streams 🍂

The House of Lords voted to include these safeguards, but last week MPs removed them.

👉 Where things stand:

The Bill returns to the Lords this week. They’ll decide whether to put these protections back in, and if they do, the Bill will return to the Commons - giving MPs another chance to show that it’s not “nature or development”. It can, and must, be both.

👉 Why this affects you:

These protections don’t just help wildlife, they protect your everyday life.
They mean cleaner water, reduced flood risk, and green spaces that support your health and wellbeing. They also help ensure development is built in a way that works for people and nature.
Without them, our water, our safety, and the places we rely on could all suffer.

👉 What you can do:

Use our quick e-action to contact your MP. The more pressure we can keep up, the more likely it is we can win vital changes for nature, even at this late stage. Together we can secure the protections wildlife and all of us urgently need.
https://action.wildlifetrusts.org/page/180301/action/1

21/11/2025

Community Consultation - One Year On

On 21 November 2024, the community responded in great numbers to the neighbourhood plan consultation, at the Swan Hotel event and online.

In the 365 days that have passed since, the responses you gave at the event have never been published, despite our request for them to be disclosed under FOI/EIR legislation. That request was made on 31 January. The law provides that public authorities have 20 working days to comply with such requests.

The online responses were eventually published by the town council for a while. However, we can no longer find them on the council's website. They do, though, appear on ours at https://savebarnmeadow.co.uk/ along with a summary that shows your fantastic support.

The Neighbourhood Plan Advisory Committee's terms of reference state that it must "undertake the process in a democratic, transparent, and fair fashion". However, despite not meeting in public since March and having never discussed either the housing allocation sites or the other important issues in public since the Community Consultation, we understand that a new draft neighbourhood plan is nearing completion.

How has it been decided?

Thank you once again for your brilliant support this time last year. We may need it again.

31/10/2025

Help Protect National and Local Wildlife - Please Act Now

Read how - in just a couple of minutes - you can influence the course of the government's Planning & Infrastructure Bill.

The auto-fill form will send your comments directly to our MP, encouraging support for two vital amendments to the bill, which is just days away from becoming law.

The amendments are both explained on the link:

- one addresses the environmental impacts of development on legally protected habitats and wildlife

- the other would create new protections in the planning system for chalk streams such as our precious River Arle/Alre and Itchen

It's now or never. This is the last chance to protect nature in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. Email your MP to keep amendment 130 in the Bill.