Planning

The Planning Lead, currently Cllr O’Connor , is the focus for planning related matters on the Parish Council, but all decisions are taken by the complete Council. The Planning Lead collects and collates information on planning applications within the Parish and presents it to the Council, usually with a recommendation. It’s important that the Council bases its comments on “policy” which encompasses national, County, District and Parish matters including our own Crondall Conservation Area Statement.

Planning Policy

Planning applications are assessed against national and local planning policy.  Local planning policy for Crondall involves the following:

“Planning Applications are assessed against national and local planning policy.  Local planning policy for Crondall involves the following:

1. 1. The Hart Local Plan (Strategy and Sites) 2032 – https://www.hart.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2022-11/hart_lpss.pdf
   2. Hart Local Plan (Replacement) 1996-2006 Saved Policies – https://www.hart.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2022-11/saved_policies_april_2020.pdf
   3. Crondall Neighbourhood Plan (made 2021)  – Crondall Parish Neigbourhood Plan 2017-2032 Referendum Plan (hart.gov.uk)

If your planning application relates to a “County Matter” then you will also need to refer to the Hampshire Minerals and Waste Plan – https://documents.hants.gov.uk/mineralsandwaste/HampshireMineralsWastePlanADOPTED.pdf

The Parish Council has no executive powers related to planning and is a “statutory consultee” only – which means we have to be asked, but our opinion is one of many and may be over-ridden.

The Parish Council is consulted on:-

• All Planning applications within the Parish Boundary
• Significant or unusual applications in adjacent parishes
• Significant planning related matters put out to consultation by Hart District Council and Hampshire County Council
• Some national policy developments (normally via HALC or similar bodies)

If there’s a planning application that affects you or you wish to express your views to the Parish Council it’s important to do this early, as the Hart planning cycle is quite short and we need to respond quickly to meet that timetable. Parishioners can send letters or e-mail to the Clerk, or request to speak under “Public Participation” (3 minutes to support or oppose an application) but if there’s is a group of you, please agree a spokesperson, otherwise its first-come, first-served. More details on this process are available under our Standing Orders. Please note that we don’t pass your specific comments onto Hart, so you may wish to submit a separate comment via their  planning portal.

Members of the public can receive Planning Application notifications and paste their own comments. If you wish to do this you need to set yourself up on the Hart Planning site.

To receive notification of new Planning Applications by e-mail use the Advanced Feature; choose Registered, the area you are interested in (possibly best to put in the whole Parish) and then tick notify by e-mail, leave the date information empty. To get Decisions notified use Advanced, chose Decided and set a start date of 01/01/20XX. This needs to be updated at the start of each new year.

Occasionally, applications are taken to Appeal by the applicants and the Parish Council may make additional submissions to the Planning Inspector.

While the Planning Lead can provide modest and informal guidance on applications, this is without prejudice to the eventual consideration of detailed plans by the Planning Lead and Parish Council. However, Parish Council members are NOT experts on planning policy or law and will generally refer enquiries to Hart Planning Department. Similarly, the Parish Council is not an “enforcement” authority and will only make minor local investigations prior to referring enforcement matters to Hart.

Crondall Conservation Area

The Crondall Conservation Area was created in 1977 to preserve areas of the village. Later additions merged this into a single contiguous Conservation Area which was most recently reviewed in 2023. This gives it considerable weight in local planning terms.