Next time you go on Google, tap in ‘Four Marks Medstead Alton Herald’, and you’ll see most of the links that come up are about housing or development.
The first is ‘planning inspector allows 60 houses to be built in Four Marks’ while the following involve petitions, major development and concerns over 1,300 homes.
There’s other things happening in Medstead & Four Marks, but right now, and for the last few years, the biggest talking point has been housing.
And still it comes: Plans for 53 homes behind 61 Lymington Bottom Road, and up to 70 more between Beechland Road and Stoney Lane were highlighted in May, while plans for 54 behind Brackenbury Gardens have been recommended for approval at an EHDC planning committee this week.
It’s hard to keep track will all these plans and speculative applications being submitted, but there’s a group which are keeping a watchful eye and trying to slow the pace.
Stand with Medstead Against Speculative Houses (SMASH) know they can’t stop housing from being built around the village, but they’re determined to get new homes placed in sensible sites, and with the infrastructure to accommodate it.
A group of concerned Medstead residents came together I 2022 to form the outfit amid plans to build 650 homes west of Lymington Bottom Road. The three applications were refused, and they’ve been keeping the pressure on EHDC and developers ever since.
“We seem to have become a dumping ground for all these new houses,” said Steve Adams, chair of SMASH.
“The housing keeps coming and it’s urbanisation by stealth. They tried it large scale, with the 650 homes, and it didn’t work, and now they’re sneaking in with little applications here and there.
“South Medstead will be a mirror image of Four Marks but we’re not getting the facilities, supermarkets, the train station and all the stuff we need.”
Medstead is divided into two parts and the area close to the Mid-Hants railway is called South Medstead.
It’s housing stock has increased by a staggering 96.8 per cent from 340 to 668 homes since 2013. The population of Four Marks & South Medstead has also increased by 38.1 per cent from 4,067 to 5,617 in the ten years after 2011.
East Hampshire District Council is currently in the process of updating its Local Plan but few need reminding of how fraught the process has been to find allocation sites. It’s inevitable more housing will be built around Four Marks & South Medstead, and Mr Adams and his colleagues accept that, but it’s got to be right.
He said: “Currently, we are working with other local residents’ groups as we are all passionate about saving our two lovely villages from destruction.
“For us, it’s all about saving our villages from overdevelopment and total urbanisation.
He added: “Our job is to put the developments where it’s appropriate, and the stop any speculation that we can. We want our kids to grow up in this village, and we just want things done the right way.”