Grave Threat to Stockbridge from Developers 2018

Four years after a plan for a completely inappropriate development (46 houses on the Meon hillside overlooking the High St) was rejected (see post here), another development is threatening the town, this time at its heart. McCarthy & Stone, a controversial* builder of retirement homes, and  developer, Frobisher, have proposed an enormous development of 60 dwellings and an 120 space car park on land behind Thyme & Tides, potentially adding at least 120 people (with their cars**) to the town of fewer than 600 residents with an already overstretched surgery.

The site of the development is Copperknobs, a house and farmyard adjoining countyside unchanged for centuries. The development would include building outside the Settlement Boundary, on designated countryside and on a field that now soaks up much excess water. No need has been established - or even argued - for this development, beyond the profit of the developers themselves. 

The area for the propsed development is above the bkue line but with the prospect of further developmentt to the Marshcourt River below. Copperknobs is the large building on the top left of the field. To the left of tbe area are the 'stew pens' used by the Houghton Club for breeding trout. 

The view from Copperknobs looking south towards the Marsh. Under the proposal, this would be built on.

A plan of the proposed development of 60 dwellings and a car park. 

Copperknobs is certainly ripe for development and no one would be likely to object to a sensible amout of new housing on the old farmyard providing it is within the Settlement Boundary and has adequate parking for all potential residents.

This is an aerial photograph showing the size of the existing Copperknobs and its land within the settlement boundary, retaining the designated countyside and views. Under such permitted development there could be space for a much smaller public car park using the existing road and reducing a potential serious traffic problem at the junction with the High St.

*For a Parliamentary discussion on the abuses of ground rents see Hansard for 29th December 2016
**Hampshire County Council allow two cars per household for planning purposes