Action Plans and Projects
Housing Development
Here the Action Plan was based on a strong majority view that the parish needed more small and 'affordable' dwellings. At the time the the parish already had one official 'Affordable Housing' scheme, but it was not suffient to meet demand. Since then a second scheme has been implemented, and is widely considered to be a great success, both from the social and from the architectural aesthetics points of view. This is 'Melchet View' on Salisbury Road. Further development will be determined by the Neighbourhood Development Plan.
Village Design Statement
The Sherfield English VDS has now been endorsed by the Parish Council and formally adopted by TVBC as a Supplementary Planning Document. It now has statutory authority, and must be taken into account in any planning application for a new build or extension. The full VDS is available here for download (1.2Mb).
This brings to conclusion 2 years of research and consultation within the village. The final document contains a lot more background information and detailed explanation, but remains essentially the same as the first draft circulated in the village newsletter in 2012.
Pedestrian Refuge
Our campaign to have a pedestrian refuge on the A27 at the Graemar Lane junction bore fruit, and this has now been implemented.
Broadband
Broadband speeds in the village are still unacceptably low in many parts of the village, with residents getting no more than 1 or 2 Mbs. Although the HCC Initiative in 2015 brought some benefit, it only provided cable as far as existing Cabinets, none of which are sited in the village. But there have been several FTTP projects in the last 2 years bringing Gigabit speeds to several areas. An Action Group, set up with Ursula Gooding as the Broadband Action Group Coordinator, is still active. Updates are posted in the SEDCA Newsletter.
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For further information on the Broadband project, click here
Roadside Footpaths
HCC approved our detailed plans for extensions to the footpath alongside the A27 near the Village Hall, and this was completed in 2013.
Traffic
The two potential issues which crop up are lorry traffic in the lanes and general speeds on the main road. Representations have been made every time a planning application has threatened additional heavy lorry movements, and to date these have always been successful. We remain vigilant.
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On speed, there was a clear consensus view in the Parish-wide questionnaire that the main areas of concern were speeds through the 5 junctions on the A27, with the Newtown Road and Graemar Lane (Post Office) junctions being most cited. The expressed view was that the whole length of the A27 through the parish should become a 40mph limit, and this, together with pedestrian refuges to divide the highway at the main junctions, became the focus for the Traffic Action Plan. This consensus view was confirmed in a more recent (2010) poll carried out by the local community association, SEDCA (see the Groups page for information on SEDCA.) These objectives have been consistently pursued by the Parish Council through representations to HCC, where they are currently being researched.
Police and HCC surveys, backed up by the expressed views of most residents, have consistently shown that traffic speeds are not a significant problem in the many narrow lanes around the parish, with only Branches Lane being a possible area of concern. Where a formal survey has been carried out the statistical spread of speeds recorded was already lower than would be targetted for a 30mph zone, so we are not in general pressing for statutory limit changes in the lanes. Nonetheless there have been anomalies in where the limits change, and where HCC is prepared to take action we are supporting them. This has been done in Newtown Road, where the 30 limit was extended. This does not mean there is not room for other measures (such as traffic calming) to slow traffic at one or two sensitive points, but our focus remains on the A27.
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