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Solent Freeport will not take powers from New Forest National Park, government promises




THE government has promised the New Forest National Park will retain control of planning after it was included within a controversial outer boundary of the Solent Freeport.

A minister made the pledge in response to a written parliamentary question by New Forest East MP Julian Lewis.

As reported in the A&T, the freeport includes specified areas with relaxed import, planning and tax rules, such as at parts of Marchwood and Fawley oil refinery.

MP Julian Lewis
MP Julian Lewis

But concerns were raised when a government map published earlier this year showed the entire district, including the national park, within an unexplained outer freeport boundary.

Some feared protected areas potentially being opened up to development, and the national park authority itself asked the government for answers.

There has since been further unease over new government plans for so-called investment zones, similar to freeports, which New Forest District Council told the A&T it was “open to exploring”.

Dr Lewis’s parliamentary question asked the reasons why “the entirety of the New Forest” had been included within the provisional freeport zone, that also takes in areas east of Southampton Water.

In reply, Dehenna Davison, junior minister in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, said: “The development sites sit within an ‘outer boundary’ which sets the limit for how far apart they can be and broadly indicates the area they expect to benefit most directly from the freeport’s economic impacts.

Dehenna Davison, junior minister in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
Dehenna Davison, junior minister in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

“While the Solent Freeport outer boundary intersects with the New Forest National Park, this in no way means that the area has been earmarked for development nor does this confer any special planning status.

“Local authorities retain all their statutory powers and responsibilities, including responsibility for providing planning permission.

“Freeport status in no way undercuts the local planning process and there is no change to the current planning and environment status of national parks.”

She said freeports investment would create “thousands of high-quality jobs in some of our most disadvantaged communities” and “democratic accountability” would be provided through oversight by key private partners and local authorities.

The separate investment zone plans have also sparked unease, with the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust (HIWWT) and the RSPB slamming the proposals as a means to tear up the planning rulebook and remove legal protections that safeguard conservation areas.

The government said that for developments “in the early stages of planning” within these zones, there would be a new faster planning permission process.

But Debbie Tann, HIWWT chief executive, called the move a “completely unprecedented all-out attack on nature”.

She said: “Without these basic safeguards, there will be a desperate fight for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight’s precious natural assets, a free-for-all, with wildlife and communities inevitably losing out to development and intensive land use.

“The government’s plans for growth rest precariously on a seemingly willing ignorance of the fact that you cannot create a sustainable economy or resilient society, without a healthy environment.”

The RSPB echoed the wildlife trust’s concerns, calling on the people of Hampshire to “help sound the alarm to protect the wildlife they love”.

Cllr Edward Heron
Cllr Edward Heron

Responding to the plans, NFDC leader Cllr Edward Heron said the authority, which backed the Solent Freeport, welcomed the government’s “focus on growth”.

He said: “We are always keen to explore opportunities that can deliver for the forest and are open to exploring investment zones with local partners.

“As with the freeport, we will need to consider how the specific incentives would apply in our area, and ensure that any proposal can be delivered in an environmentally sustainable way that respects and enhances our unique and special place.”



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