RESIDENTS in Four Marks and South Medstead say they feel “under siege” as five major developments impact on their quality of life.

People living in the Boyneswood Road, Red Hill and Lymington Bottom Road triangle are questioning the role of East Hampshire planners as they struggle to deal with the disruption caused by construction traffic on closely located sites that will bring hundreds of new homes to the area.

They are up in arms over what they see as the “unfairness” of a planning system that has allowed developers to hone in on one relatively small area, with what appears to be no co-ordination and no thought given to the impact on the local community.

And they are angry with East Hampshire District Council (EHDC) planners for allowing this to happen.

But the district council says officers are doing all they can to ensure the developments are progressing in compliance with their planning conditions, as well as keeping residents informed of their progress.

However, according to Boyneswood Road resident Dave Curtis, many of the people living in this area feel as though the building contractors have taken control, with HGVs blocking roads, mounting pavements and trespassing along bridleways, leaving mud on the roads, causing a skid hazard, and closing off bridges and roads, often without any prior warning, making access difficult.

After months of inconvenience and frustration, residents are losing faith in EHDC’s ability and desire to enforce planning conditions put there to deal with such issues. And they have had enough.

Several residents have flagged up a recent incident with a digger truck, with a generator on board, being driven down part of a bridleway used by horses and walkers that they believed to be out of bounds to contractor traffic. Residents say they tried, but failed, to get EHDC enforcement officers to deal with the incident.

Mr Curtis said: “Once permission is given planning officers appear to absolve themselves of any responsibility. They are not prepared to challenge these activities.”

Despite reams of paper and e-mail complaints, and meetings with contractors, including a recent site meeting on the Bargate site off Boyneswood Road which, according to fellow resident Fabio Perselli was “bad tempered”, with the construction director pointing out that it was “just a job”, the feeling among many in the community is that they are on their own in the fight to try to retain some form of control over what is happening to them, and it does not bode well for the future.

Mr Curtis continued: “Absolutely no thought has been given to how the area can cope with this volume of development.

“EHDC has approved permission for hundreds of homes to be squeezed into this one small area with no thought given to the predictable consequences.

“When making these decisions the council does not take an holistic view. This work should have been planned and the developments phased.

“We (the residents) articulated this at the time – that we need forward planning, but we were ignored by the decision makers, despite the best efforts of our local councillors, Ingrid Thomas and Mark Kemp-Gee, who have tried but seem powerless to get things done.

“We are told the developers have systems in place to control what is going on, but it is clearly not working. Planning enforcement officers should close down the sites until they get things right. They should hand the problem back to the developers instead of leaving the community to suffer. We want to see EHDC protecting our best interests.”

And he continued: “We have had to put up with this for more than six months, but it will be going on for years and it will not be long before the next round of housing quotas kick in – then they will probably try to fill in the gaps between these developments. What is it going to be like if we can’t set reasonable precedents? Having to put up with this is unacceptable.”

Commenting on the situation, county councillor Mark Kemp-Gee said: “With five substantial housing sites consisting of some 400 new houses being built in area at the same time, in wet winter conditions, and the requirement for massive main sewer and mains water infrastructure construction as well, this was always going to be an almost impossible burden for local residents to endure.

“All of us in the relevant local authorities, parish, district and county, are working night and day with our officers to impress on the developers, contractors and builders that they must adhere to the highest and best construction practices that they have agreed to. If they fail to do so, they should be named and shamed with a requirement for a financial bond to be posted so we can clean the roads and deal with all the other issues that have arisen at their expense.

“Above all, I hope the planning authorities, having ignored the warnings from the rest of us, are listening and that, whatever the pressures to build new houses,  this lack of joined-up thinking is not repeated ever again.”

In a statement, a spokesman has confirmed that EHDC has no control over when developers begin construction. However, it is stressed that “EHDC planning enforcement officers are regularly meeting with site managers and technical directors and are regularly on site to inspect progress”.

The statement continued: “We are also in discussion with the police and Hampshire County Council’s highways department over matters outside our control, for example issues relating to the local roads.

“We appreciate the difficulties so many simultaneous developments are causing local residents and we are doing all we can to ensure the developments are progressing in compliance with their planning conditions.”

EHDC says it’s trying hard to keep residents informed of progress with regular meetings, the next one being held by Bargate at 6pm tomorrow (Tuesday, January 30) at Medstead village hall.