The owners of Highclere Castle have proposed to Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council that much needed repairs to some of the historic buildings on the estate are funded through appropriate development on estate land. Normally such development would not be permitted but in this instance may be considered appropriate because of the benefit of repairing important historic buildings, this is called ‘enabling development’.
A public meeting was held at the Castle on Monday 13 October which marked the start of a period of public consultation which ended on 21 December 2008. In total there have been 122 responses received from the public and other consultees.
The public consultation also focused on the potential for increasing public access to the estate should any development be agreed in the future. Many ideas have come forward from local people and these will be discussed with the owners of Highclere in due course.
Officers at the council are now considering the responses, which have raised a range of issues.
The next step in the process is to report the results of the consultation to the Environment Overview Committee on Thursday 5 March 2009. That committee will also consider and comment on any amendments to the draft policy made as a result of the consultation. The comments of the committee will then be reported to Cabinet, on Tuesday 26 May 2009, when there will be a decision as to whether or not the policy should be adopted.
Please note that there are no specific sites proposed for development at the moment. At this stage it is the principle of and the need for enabling development which is being considered.
If the policy is adopted the Highclere Estate would then submit the first planning application along with a proposed package of repairs. At that stage there would be further public consultation, as there would be with any planning application.
The draft policy document and explanatory leaflet are available to view or download below. Highclere and Burghclere parish councils also have paper copies, which are also available by calling the borough council on 01256 845414 to request a copy.