Residents identify 34 brownfield sites for council

A council's call for residents to identify brownfield sites for development has delivered more than 30 locations for consideration, it said.

East Hampshire District Council (EHDC) said its Call for Sites initiative, which ran from 7 May to 7 June, resulted in a total of 111 suggestions by residents.

The authority said that after removing duplicates, sites outside the area or inside the South Downs National Park, it had been left with 34 sites to investigate.

The appeal also resulted in three new sites to be considered for Traveller accommodation and six suggestions for biodiversity net gain.

It comes after a local plan consultation, held between 22 January and 8 March, when respondents suggested "every opportunity should be taken to identify brownfield land for development".

Angela Glass, the council's regulation and enforcement lead, said it had been "an extremely useful exercise, which has helped us find more sites to assess".

She said: “It’s so important that we continue to make the best use of previously developed land to protect our countryside."

However, Ms Glass said there were still "not sufficient brownfield sites to meet our housing need".

She said the authority needed to "protect valuable infrastructure, community facilities and businesses – so not all brownfield sites are suitable for residential development".

EHDC said the suitability of the sites for development had not yet been established but they would now be included in its local plan work.

It said the sites suggested within the national park had been passed to its planning team.

Follow BBC South on Facebook, X, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected] or via WhatsApp on 0808 100 2240.