Hampshire’s minerals and waste plan includes two New Forest sites - Ashley Manor Farm in Barton and Midgham Farm near Fordingbridge

Public hearings for the proposed Hampshire minerals and waste plan have finished - but residents still feel they are not being listened to.

Such plans are strategic documents that planning authorities should have to determine planning applications for mineral extraction or waste facilities on the authority’s land.

Five Hampshire authorities - Hampshire County Council, Portsmouth City Council, Southampton City Council, New Forest National Park Authority and the South Downs National Park Authority - are responsible for ensuring sufficient extraction and supply of minerals up to 2030.

They adopted the Hampshire minerals and waste plan in 2013. After two public consultations, the proposed plan includes updates to the development management policies. As with the minerals policies, some waste policies have been amended, and others have remained the same.

It also includes four sites across Hampshire for the extraction of sand and gravel: Hamble Airfield in Hamble-le-Rice, Purple Haze near Verwood, Ashley Manor Farm in Barton and Midgham Farm near Fordingbridge.

Submission to the government Planning Inspectorate was agreed in July 2024 by Hampshire’s five mineral and waste planning authorities.

In December 2024, the inspectorate confirmed that examination hearings would be open and conducted by an independent inspector.

The hearings, which started on 4th February and lasted two weeks, were informal ’round table’ sessions led by planning inspector Luke Fleming, who examined the plan.

At the meetings, representatives from Cemex, Collard Group, New Milton Sand and Ballast, Raymond Brown Group, and Aggregate Industries Ltd, among others, expressed their views.

Neighbours of the proposed quarries, such as Venetia Roland and Pamela Perrysites, also had the opportunity to participate.

Mrs Roland, who lives on the border of the Midgham Farm proposed quarry, said that neighbours feel Hampshire County Council is “not interested in residents, only to bring the plan forward as a gravel extraction site”.

“Residents have not been listened to by Hampshire County Council,” she said. “There were 962 objections to this site at regulation 18.

“This site is not deliverable because of the various issues and the implications around noise, right of ways, amenity of local residents, landscaping, protected habitats and species, loss of agricultural land, flood risk, and traffic.

“The area and residents have suffered over 40 plus years, and it doesn’t seem in the interest of residents that this site should then go forward again.”

Pamela Perry, a resident of New Milton, spoke about the Ashley Manor Farm quarry, approved by the county council in November, and said that nothing has changed since the last two quarry applications were refused in the past.

“I’ve lived in this area for over 30 years,” she said. “I’ve witnessed the previous inspections. On each occasion, the Inspector refused them on the grounds that the site was essential to the setting of New Milton.

“They said the special quality of the openness was special and definitive. It’s a case in which I didn’t see anything changed. I think it is still relevant today.

“Ashely Manor Farm is a green belt; it is essential to the setting of the town and gives a lot of public amenities to people.”

The inspector will now prepare a report for the five mineral and waste planning authorities with conclusions and recommendations. It is estimated that it will be public in the summer of 2025.

If the inspector agrees that the plan is “legally compliant” and “sound” – is positively prepared, justified, effective and consistent with national policy – in all respects, the report will recommend its adoption by the five mineral and waste planning authorities.

If it is found not to be legally compliant or is unsound in any respect, the inspector can recommend modifications to make it so, where possible.

The examination will remain open until the inspector’s report is submitted. However, no further representations or evidence will be accepted after the hearings, unless the inspector specifically requests it.

After the inspector delivers the report on the plan in the summer, all authorities will adopt the plan in winter 2025/26.

Subsequently, the plan will be monitored, reviewed and updated if necessary.