Old Basing and Lychpit's new plan would protect a Loddon valley gap and seven green spaces. Comments close 5pm on 6 November; the council has its own doubts.

Updated 30 October: the borough council’s Leader signed off its response to the plan on 29 October. See the borough council’s reservations.

Residents have until 5pm on Friday 6 November to comment on a new neighbourhood plan for Old Basing and Lychpit. It would draw a protected “Local Gap” along the River Loddon to keep the village separate from Basingstoke, and give seven green spaces the strongest protection planning law allows.

Old Basing is about two miles east of Basingstoke town centre. The parish has about 7,300 residents in just over 3,000 homes, according to the plan.

The plan was written by Old Basing and Lychpit Parish Council and submitted to the borough council on 11 August. The borough is now running the formal consultation, which opened on 25 September, as its neighbourhood plan page sets out. Once in force, the plan would run to 2042 and be used to decide planning applications in the parish.

What the plan would do

It replaces the parish’s first plan, which covered 2015 to 2029 and was adopted in July 2018. The submission plan keeps some policies and adds two new ones.

The two new policies are:

  • a Local Gap in the Loddon valley, east of Pyotts Hill and running north between the allocated site at Old Basing and Newnham Lane. Development there would be supported only if it avoided “visual, physical or perceptual coalescence between Old Basing and Basingstoke (including Lychpit)”
  • a biodiversity and landscape policy focused on the River Loddon and its floodplain

The plan also designates seven Local Green Spaces, where building would be allowed only in “very special circumstances”:

  • the Basingstoke Canal sections behind Cavalier Road
  • Hodds Lane Copse
  • Harvest Way
  • Swing Swang Lane
  • Great Binfields Road
  • Belle Vue
  • Old Basing Recreation Ground

Other changes add protected views, more detail on walking, cycling and bus routes, more say over how developer contributions are spent, and a housing mix policy that favours one, two and three bedroom homes. The plan says the parish has far more four and five bedroom homes than the borough average, and an older population that is growing. A new design code builds on the old Village Design Statement.

The parish council surveyed residents in December 2023. It received 526 responses representing 1,089 people, and says 97 per cent supported protecting Local Green Space.

The borough council’s reservations

The borough is a consultee as well as the organiser. Its draft response, in a report to the Leader of the Council, calls the plan “thorough and robust” overall, but raises several issues the independent examiner will see:

  • The Local Gap overlaps other policies. Officers say its landscape protections belong in the Loddon policy instead. They support the redrawn boundary, which no longer overlaps the land East of Basingstoke at Whitmarsh Lane allocated for housing, but say the evidence could do more to show the gap is “the minimum necessary”.
  • A new protected view is “a wide vista across the southern part of the draft allocation” in the borough’s draft Local Plan. Officers say its effect on planned housing “will need to be fully considered”.
  • The Loddon policy has no map, so it is unclear where it applies.
  • It was written to the old national rules. The plan was submitted six days before the new National Planning Policy Framework was published on 17 August. The parish chose to carry on under the December 2024 version. The borough warns that this could leave some policies out of date when they are used.

The Leader of the Council, Cllr Paul Harvey, agreed that response on 29 October. The decision says the plan “is generally supported”, with “a limited number of issues for the Examiner to consider”. It can be called in by councillors and takes effect on 6 November, the day comments close.

What happens next

An independent examiner will test the plan against the legal “basic conditions” and see every comment. Both councils think the changes are significant but do not change the nature of the plan, which would mean no referendum. The examiner makes the final call on that.

The borough receives £10,000 from the government for the examination, or £20,000 if a referendum is needed.

What it means for you

If you live, work or own land in Old Basing or Lychpit, this is the stage where your comments go to the examiner. Comments at the earlier draft stage, in January to March, went to the parish council. This round goes to the examiner.

You can respond by 5pm on Friday 6 November:

  • online through the council’s consultation portal
  • by email to local.plan@basingstoke.gov.uk
  • by post to the Planning Policy Team, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, Civic Offices, London Road, Basingstoke RG21 4AH

Paper copies are at the Civic Offices, the Discovery Centre, Chineham Library, the Royal British Legion and St Mary’s Church in Old Basing, and the parish council offices. Only written comments count.

For decisions and applications elsewhere in the borough, see our Basingstoke planning news page.