Information provided by the Village Design Team of Appleshaw Village

A Village Design Statement (VDS) is a term of English rural planning practice. It is a document that describes the distinctive characteristics of the locality and provides design guidance to influence future development and improve the physical qualities of the area.

The Village Design Team completed a draft questionnaire (click here for a copy) which was delivered to every house, printed in ARC and available on the village web sites. The questionnaire was published in May 2012 and was considered during the summer with a public meeting in the autumn.

There had been a good turnout to the open meeting on October 8th, 30 residents giving their views. Thanks were due to Cllr Mr P Lashbrook and Mr Graham Smith from TVBC planning for their help. It was planned that by the end of November the draft document should be half way to completion.

The Chairman of the Parish Council reported that the Village Design Statement was in its final draft and wished to thank Pat Wood and Janice Bowes for all their hard work.

At the March Parish Council meeting Mrs P Wood reported that the Village Design Statement (VDS) was now at the final draft state. 95% of the text has been approved or amended by the planners. The Chairman thanked the VDS Team for an excellent job and all agreed.

Updated Village Design Statement

At the Council meeting on 15th April 2015 Test Valley resolved to adopt the Appleshaw and Redenham VDS as a Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) to provide design guidance for the parish of Appleshaw. The document will now form part of Test Valley’s planning policies for the parish.

A copy of this final document can be found here. Any comments should be addressed to Mrs Pat Wood at huliowood@aol.com.