A COUNCILLOR has called for planners to think twice before placing too much reliance on public transport to solve traffic problems in the borough of Basingstoke and Deane.

The call comes from Cllr Stephen Reid from Hampshire County Council after tens of thousands of new homes could be build in Basingstoke.

As previously reported government calculations suggest as many as 17,820 new homes need to be built in Basingstoke and Deane by the end of 2039 and council documents reveal that Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council (BDBC) need to build 7,703 houses more than they currently have in the pipeline.

It's part of the update process of a document called the local plan, which sets the rules surrounding the development of the borough and can be used by developers as a blueprint on where and how to build houses.

SEE ALSO: County councillor Stephen Reid shares views on Basingstoke local plan

Cllr Stephen Reid said: “The Covid lockdowns produced a long-lasting impact on people’s use of public transport, one that planners need to recognise. But I fear they are not, which means that a striking contradiction is developing in our planning process. Unless they respond, the planners will be taking a huge risk with Basingstoke’s future.

“Basingstoke is slated to take thousands of new homes over the next decade, most of them in the South West of the Borough. But will we get the roads to support the resultant traffic? I fear not: the planners are instead talking about ‘modal shift’, which means moving people out of their cars and into public transport.

“It sounds good. But can they actually achieve that? I am not so sure because recent history is not on their side.”

Cllr Reid said that the bus company in Basingstoke reports that the recovery looks to have topped out at about 75 per cent of the pre-Covid levels which will make “many services uneconomic”.

He said the reasons for the decline in bus usage are easy to analyse inlcuding:

  •  Shopping patterns changed, with more on-line ordering taking place.
  • Working patterns changed, with more people working from home or in ‘hybrid’ mode.  
  • Attitudes changed. People are now much more cautious about mixing with others, including on public transport.

READ MORE: Hundreds of police officers recruited in Hampshire since September 2019

He continued: “Even the painfully high costs of fuel are not persuading enough people to use public transport. Neither have the bus company's major investments to make its vehicles cleaner and more comfortable overcome the trend.

“For Basingstoke, the risk of relying on ‘modal shift’ is huge. There are tens of thousands of new homes being planned for Southern Manydown and its adjoining fields, all of which will generate traffic.

“The planners are pinning their designs on a greater use of public transport aided by a ‘Mass Rapid Transport’ link, which appears to be a not-yet-defined bus route. No western by-pass. No new north/south road. Just a hope that public transport will come to the rescue when the indications are that it can’t.”

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