Oct 26 Combined JW - Flipbook - Page 31
Opinion Hayling Herald
Hayling Island Residents’
Association
By Anne Skennerton, chair of
Hayling Island Residents Association
(HIRA)
n Key Diary Date: HIRA’s upcoming Public Meeting (following the
short AGM) will focus on the new
parish council. Speakers will be
parish councillors and clerks presenting then taking your questions
on how our Hayling Parish Council
can work.
This is your chance to listen and
put your questions to experienced
and practising parish councillors and clerks one of whom also
worked in newly established parish
councils.
We will all be voting for Hayling’s
first parish councillors this coming
May. Don’t waste this opportunity
to find out and join the discussion:
Monday, October 5th, 7.15pm for
7.30pm Hayling Island Community
Centre, Main Hall.
AT HIRA’s September committee
meeting we agreed that HIRA’s
role would continue to hold to
account the new parish and higher
authorities.
Therefore, we don’t plan to field
councillors but we urge anyone
standing to follow good practice by
focusing on the Island’s needs not
their own politics.
On that theme, we would encourage the many able and non-political
to seriously consider standing for
Hayling’s new council – what an
opportunity for councillors to make
a real difference and no longer be a
tiny minority whose Hayling concerns are too easily crowded out by
very different, competing interests!
By now we hope that a huge number of Islanders have responded to
support the emerging Local Plan.
Those who thoroughly examined
the hundreds of documents for the
Rook Farm Inquiry, report instances
of out-dated consultee statements so
that new information was not read
by the Inspector. What that inquiry
demonstrated is that there must be a
sharper focus on planning applications coming forward. This is what
a parish council does; it focuses
and can comment on those applications directly concerning Haying
so there’s a better opportunity to
ensure nothing is missed.
Moreover, tardy or incomplete
statutory consultees can be chased
in good time by Hayling resident
councillors.
A welcome move for our new
parish council is that other existing
local parish councils are keen to
co-operate and share their experience with Hayling. Hampshire Association of Local Councils (HALC)
already provides local and parish
councils with support, advice and
representation to help them operate
effectively and lawfully. I understand that Havant Borough Council’s officer responsible for setting
up Hayling and Emsworth’s parish
councils is meeting HALC officers
for exactly that purpose.
There’s plenty of knowledge to
ensure this is done correctly.
Hampshire Water Transfer and
Water Recycling Project (HWTWRP) is now with the Planning
Inspectorate. This is Stage 4 of a
maximum six-month examination
to scrutinise the plans, hold public
hearings, and review formal evidence.
HIRA was among the 30 organisations or groups and a total of
2,574 people from 11 other areas in
our region who supported Havant
Matters’ 99 page Representation to
the Planning Inspectorate.
This impressive document presents the combined objections and
concerns of our region’s community
which includes retired water inspectors, retired environmental health
professionals, retired water industry specialists and Havant Thicket
reservoir stakeholders.
What happens next? Stage 5
proceeds to a Recommendation and
Decision process, when the Planning Inspectorate has three months
to write a report and send a recommendation to the Secretary of State.
The Secretary of State then has
three months to make the final choice. Finally Stage 6 is the
Post-Decision Future.
This provides a six-week window where the final decision can
be legally challenged in the High
Court. Given the huge cost of such
action we must hope that this won’t
be necessary. We look forward to
seeing you October 5th. Bring your
questions or send them to hello@
haylingresidentsassociation.co.uk.
Contact HIRA at haylingresidentsassociation.co.uk
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