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Published: 30 July 2017

The PCRA chairman attended Mondays IFA2 meeting at Holy Rood church, Stubbington. The aim of the meeting was to outline the progress to date and answer any questions regarding the project.

The main topics were as outlined below:

There will be a new park created where the public can freely visit. It will be situated in the remaining area not taken up by the Interconnector and run parallel to the Gosport Road (road to Stubbington).  Its purpose is to provide open spaces for people to visit the area, no parking charges, take dogs for a walk, have a picnic and watch the aircraft take off and land.

The design of the Interconnector has changed and it will not be as tall as originally planned. It will still however reach a height of 20 metres. The area it takes up will be more or less the same as the original plans. Some buildings will have a sloping roof. The Fareham Borough planning officer Mark Wyatt outlined the efforts to be made to hide the building which consisted of limited banks of earth and tree planting.

The questions put to the leader of Fareham council included questions on noise, safety, airfield operation, Fareham’s involvement in the “calling in notice” and planning future safeguards.

The Fareham Borough Council leader in response to questions stated that noise levels will be within government guide lines, Electromagnetic and Electrical safety will meet all current safety levels, the operation of the airfield will not be compromised and controversially FBC did not have any contact with the government department responsible for the calling in notice action.

Comment

It was disappointing to note that FBC placed great emphasise on the proposed park and spent more time outlining the plans of this area than the plans for the Interconnector itself.  Open space is always welcome however it is open space now and if it came to a choice it would be more preferable to visit an existing park (Alver valley) than a park alongside a huge electrical generator.

Once more the audience was subjective to the assurances of Mark Wyatt the Fareham principle planner that the Interconnector will not be seen. No matter how hard he tried to disguise the building it was still obvious to the audience that he could not outdo the magician David Copperfield, and make it disappear. The building will be highly visible and simply still stick out like a sore thumb.

It was declared that the operation of the airfield will not be compromised however at this late stage National Grid are attempting to carry out a subjective test to measure the magnetic and electric fields running alongside the runway. The test is more dynamic than desk top modelling however it still excludes flying aircraft and is limited to a very small test area and does not represent the full distance of a field for the full length of the runway. 

Despite assurances that noise and electric fields will not be a problem the bottom line was that should it not be the case and it is a problem, FBC would get National Grid to sort it out. With memories of a 15 plus year fix for the Peel Common pong, residents can be excused for some cynicism regarding this promise.

Finally the chaos over the calling in notice. This notice was a request for a government department to investigate the whole planning procedure therefore eliminating the Fareham judge and jury advantage. It has now transpired that the call in consideration was based on a gentleman’s agreement over a telephone call where at the planning agreement stage the government department would engage with FBC to discuss the issue. This did not happen as FBC went ahead with their decision circumventing the calling in procedure.  FBC stated there was no telephone call and no gentleman’s agreement. The government department stated otherwise. Someone is not telling the truth and hopefully (though don’t hold your breath on this) someone will be held to account for this gross disregard of government procedures.

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Published: 26 April 2017

Residents may have been wondering why they had heard nothing from the Residents' Association about the astonishing action by Fareham Borough Council in granting the IFA2 Interconnector planning permission despite the fact that the matter was before the Secretary of State for him to decide whether to "call in" the application. Due to a calling in notice this planning permission was supposed to be put on hold until reviewed by the Secretary of State. To date however we have been formally informed that the Calling in Notice has failed to even get off the ground. We are awaiting an explanation on why the government department let this happen.

What is known is that Fareham Borough Council simply ignored the notice and went ahead with the planning permission.

The decision was supposed to be up to the Secretary of State, but due to a totally unofficial "gentleman's agreement" between Fareham and the National Planning Casework Unit, Fareham simply ignored the notice and pulled the rug from under the Secretary of State.

When questioned the government department stated that a Section 31 Directive (the formal notice to hold on with the decision) had not been issued because there had been a “gentlemen’s agreement” to the effect that the Council would not publish its decision until the Secretary of State had decided whether or not to "call in" the planning application.

It beggars belief that important affairs concerning local authorities are carried out using of all things, a gentleman’s agreement!!

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Published: 17 January 2017

The planning report from Fareham Borough Councils planning department has now been published and as expected recommends the go ahead with the electrical interconnector.

The final decision will be made by the Fareham Borough planning committee at the public meeting to be held at Fernham Hall starting at 10am on Monday 23^rd January 2017. It is important that residents are aware that Fareham Borough Council are about to impose a massive change onto our local landscape and all the risks that go with it. It is hoped that there will be a high attendance at this meeting and residents are encourage to attend.

To view the planning report visit the Library and select Public reports pack 23012017 1000 Planning Committee

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Published: 11 October 2016

The IFA2 outline planning application is still under consideration by the Fareham Borough Council planning committee. There are ongoing discussions with National Grid over a number of issues and Fareham is still awaiting specialist consultant advice to help provide a recommendation to the planning committee. The current date of the 30^th September will not be met and a new date will soon be published.

A meeting recently took place between the Lee, Hill Head and Peel Common resident association chairmen and the National Grid project manager. Items discussed including Noise, Electrical safety in particular airfield operation, size of building and depth of opposition to the plan. The discussion also included the subject of alternative sights. It could be concluded from the meeting that National Grid are still committed and determined to progress the siting of an electrical converter at Daedalus.

It is the intention of the PCRA committee to continue to object to the current site of Daedalus and press for the alternative site of Fawley.

In order to keep people informed of the progress of the IFA2, National Grid has now produced a Newsletter.

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