Ferris Cowper’s District Council Newsletter

Dear villagers,

First of all may I wish you all a very successful 2017. 2016 had its ups and downs for the village but the Hampshire Association of Local Councils, (HALC), awards reminded everyone just what an amazing place this is. Because we all want the best for our community we are quite a self critical village at times and (speaking as a self critical person), it can be very refreshing to hear an outsider sing your praises as HALC did about Grayshott.

I hope everyone had a happy Christmas. As ever, St. Luke’s played a key role with the beautifully candle lit Nine Lessons and Carols, the annual Carols in The Square on Christmas Eve led by Moray, (thanks to The Square Group) and the Christmas Day morning service when we learned just how many words you can make out of “Christmas”.

My last newsletter was bumped off the front page of the website by the small ads and wasn’t seen by many people, (less than 25% of the usual number), so if you missed it, much of it is still relevant and you can read it here.

Things are never boring in Grayshott and we have much to anticipate in 2017. I hope that before the Annual Parish Assembly I will be able to make an announcement about a trial of a new car parking system in the village. As I’ve said many times before, the easy bit is how to manage casual and shopping parking and we will be doing that by a system of time limited waiting on and off street. The problem has always been where to locate the 80 to 100 cars that need to park all day long because the drivers work in the village. I’ve been hoping to be able to persuade the District Council to buy land for extra parking spaces but despite a great deal of effort there seems to be no suitable land forthcoming. The willingness and ability of the Council to buy land is there but landowners are not making their land available, sometimes through the device of overpricing their land. Nobody bid for the NatWest site for example

Applegarth Vale should start its development in 2017 and I’m very excited at the prospect of finally, after 17 years as Grayshott’s District Councillor, having enough affordable dwellings, (by which I mean a subsidised social rent), to meet the demand of those with a proven and close, Grayshott connection. I set out to provide a home for every Grayshott citizen who needs one, way back in my first year as your District Councillor, in 1999, when I stopped Philips House from being closed. I’m not proud that it took me 17 years but in the countryside it’s generally accepted that providing affordable housing, (as defined), is challenging because affordable housing is usually built as a % of a market development. Without that the income and expenditure doesn’t balance out. It’s a rare, (possibly unique), situation to find a large village like ours in a position to satisfy the local demand for affordable housing.

I fear for our shops. The big threat in Grayshott is increasingly less about the internet and more about the propensity of landlords to seek planning permission to turn shops into offices or other non retail uses to secure higher rental income. The EHDC Local Plan of 2006 allows every other premises in Grayshott to be non retail throughout the shopping centre. In other words half of the shopping centre could be non retail. In my opinion that would so damage “footfall” in the village shops, that only big outlets like Sainsbury, Co-op and Lloyds Chemists would survive comfortably. I’m doing all I can to resist this loss of retail but until we can amend the Local Plan, (which I am actively lobbying for in the LP3 stage as I mentioned in my previous newsletter), there isn’t much we can do other than challenge the landlords’ logic at every step of the way.

May sees the elections for the County Council. Regardless of your voting preferences please ensure you are registered to vote and that you cast your vote. These days many people apply for a postal vote which makes voting very simple and straightforward. I think in 2015 when I was last elected about a quarter of the electors in Grayshott voted postally. Don’t forget I’m no longer your County Councillor; Cllr. Floss Mitchell was elected in a by election earlier this May.

I’m looking forward to another year as your District councillor, my 18th so please keep in touch in the usual way. My email is; ferris.cowper@easthants.gov.uk and my ‘phone is; 01428-609858.

Happy New Year,

Cllr. Ferris Cowper

Leader of East Hampshire District Council and ward member for Grayshott.