August 2011 - Planning application imminent
see the news page.

Chrismas Lodge Care Home
Evelyn Avenue Aldershot

The B.E.S.T. Report.
Brickfields Environmental Sustainability Trust

The report is available here (1) (pdf format 389Kb)

Sign our on-line petition

Chrismas Lodge - Proposal For Alternative Uses
pdf 531Kb, as sent to HCC and RBC.

Britain's smallest Country Park could get even smaller !

Chrismas Lodge residential care home was closed by Hampshire County Council in November 2005 citing its unsuitability and costs to meet new care standards, since then it has lain empty, a target for graffiti and vandals (see the gallery photos). The site has been confirmed by HCC as no longer meeting their needs and was put up for sale for development, subsequently the buildings of the care home were demolished in February 2008 following an arson attack by local youths. Development on this site will be detrimental to not only the local residents through increased traffic on narrow roads, but also to the wildlife of the site and in the adjoining Brickfields Country Park.

The aim of this website is to ensure the continued use of the Chrismas Lodge site for the local community in a way that supports that community and the wildlife of Brickfields Park together by ensuring all avenues of consultation are explored and examined. The B.E.S.T Report, is our vehicle to promote this discussion about the future of Chrismas Lodge. Should the CHL site eventually be developed our foremost aim is to ensure the strip of land bordering Chrismas Lodge, currently within the Park but owned by Hampshire County Council, is returned to Brickfields Park and not used as part of the development or in lieu of any section 106 requirements for the development. See page four of Freehold for Sale - "Special Condition of Sale", which makes a mockery of the Section 106 payment system which is intended to help the local community. This "Special Condition" imposes on a developer that which Hampshire county Council should do - give us what we already have !.

News August 2011 - Planning application expected soon, see the news page.

January 2006 - A chance conversation with a local resident prompted us to ask Rushmoor Borough Council about the closure of Chrismas Lodge, the boundaries and their affect on Brickfields Park. This lead to the fact that should Chrismas Lodge be sold, the new owners (obviously a developer) would lay claim to the land as marked in the deeds, not as actually present on the land. (The affected area is coloured blue in the picture below) This means that Brickfields Park would lose a strip of land along the Chrismas Lodge boundary upto 10m wide, across to the Western boundary and then up to the Highfield Gardens / Croft Lane path (see the Gallery. "That's not much" you say, actually its one eighth of an acre or space for two houses. Whilst not a large amount of land, Brickfields Park, would lose the Highfield Gardens entrance to the park, depriving residents in the upper Highfield area, the Crown Estate and more, of easy access to their only local natural wildlife habitat. Some, if they want to get to Brickfields Park, would then drive rather than walk - not a good option in today's environmental climate.

This is development by stealth, a fait accompli, without any public consultation or contact with The Friends of Brickfields Park This could be seen as being the thin end of the wedge for Brickfields Park in its possible eventual disposal for even more housing, a terrible loss for the local community. Brickfields Country Park, has in the past won an award for Public Access, now HCC Winchester want to reduce our access !. This shows just how disconnected Winchester is from their local community.

Please support us in our campaign to stop this loss and also spread the word. Contact your local Councilor, your M.P., Hampshire County Council, Rushmoor Borough Council - anybody. Valuable resources like this in Aldershot are being lost, help to save this one !.  A full list of contacts for this campaign can be found on the Contacts page.

Download the B.E.S.T Report - and then - Sign our on-line petition here

Chrismas Lodge - Proposal For Alternative Uses
pdf 531Kb, as sent to HCC and RBC.

For previous news reports and articles about the ongoing Chrismas Lodge closure see our News page.

News about this land is hard to come by and Hampshire County Council are keeping their cards well hidden, however we do know that contractors have been on site digging test pits for subsoil analysis and installing water table monitors (see the Gallery page), so development for housing would seem to be the logical conclusion. This has been confirmed by several residents of Evelyn Avenue, as they have been approached by prospective developers to sell their properties and thereby double the area available for development to about 3 acres. Having had one of our wettest winters for many a year, any prospective developers would need to do some very careful homework before venturing their capital into this site.

The site is 1.2 acres, now houses per acre depends on several facts, but this is governed mostly by HCC and any prospective developer wanting to maximise the number of houses on the site and therefore to maximise their profits. This could range from low density at 10 houses (or less) to high density at about 30 (2) houses an acre, between 10 and 36 dwellings on the Chrismas Lode site. Using an approximate average of 16 (3) would give 19 houses for the 1.2 acre site, and given its location it is most likely that all the residents will own a car and a large proportion will have two. For our calculations let's say all have one car, half have two cars, and half have at least one child - that could be over 140 extra vehicle movements a day without even considering tradesmen or visitors. Maximising houses on this old clay digging site filled over the years with whatever was to hand will require extensive piling operations close to or even on the edge of Chrismas Lodge which brings us back to HCC's comment of "wanting to retain control of the slope" - the lower blue section of the map above right.

Very soon after this site was launched it was said that -

• "it (the site) contains a great deal of misinformation ... from the Lib/Dems."
• "No mention of the £10M spent on an HCC care home ... now 3 times bigger with nearly 70 residents."
• ".... have moved into a world of publishing conspiracy theories and misinformation."

1. No information on this site has been taken directly from the Lib Dems or any other political party, indeed we say we cannot control and do not necessarily agree with the content of external sites linked.
2. No mention would be made of the £10M spent on a replacement home, this site is a campaign against the redevelopment of the Chrismas Lodge site, not to eulogize HCC over their spending on other sites. Chrismas Lodge home has been closed, the merits of that decision are not for this campaign.
3. There is no conspiracy theory or misinformation presented, all the information given is freely available and in the public domain, it may take some digging to get at, but it is there. However, one point does need correction, Chrismas Lodge had space for 36 residents, the new facility has "nearly 70", not even twice the size let alone three times. Misinformation, a case of "Pot calling the kettle black" ! we think. reference
4. The aim of this website is to ensure the continued use of the Chrismas Lodge site for the local community in a way that supports that community and the wildlife of Brickfields Park by ensuring all avenues of consultation are explored and examined. Discussion of this website and its aims are open to all and any comment is invited and welcomed, please use this form to contact us.

Notes -
1).   You may need an Adobe Acrobat reader to view the report, to download the latest version click here.  At 38Mb this may take some time depending on your internet connection.
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2).   The 2006 Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey.  In the UK, new houses were built at an average of 16 per acre (40 per hectare) in 2005.
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3).   Housing density.  Nearby Woking Council have three bands for housing density, LOW = 25 dwellings per Hectare, MEDIUM = 20-50 dwellings per Hectare and HIGH = 49-74 dwellings per Hectare.
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4).   In 1974 Hampshire County Council paid £62,000 for the Chrismas Lodge land. The BEST Report tried to buy the site from HCC under the Government's Quirk Review legislation, but in a meeting with Property Services one throw away comment was "We don't care who we sell to, if you can afford £3m to buy it, you can have it", that's a 4838% profit.
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