Thanks to the absolutely amazing generosity of almost 800 donors, we've been able to pay all our bills for solicitors, barrister, expert witness and fundraising, which came to £51,752!

But especially to Save Our Island, who covered the unexpected bill for our Planning expert witness, after Havant Borough Council denied us access to their Planning experts. Any leftover funds will go to reducing that bill. HIRA will publish the audited accounts at our October AGM.

And HUGE thanks to everyone for all your support through this white-knuckle ride , all the personal statements read out at the Inquiry, all your objections and letters to the Inspector and all the messages of thanks.

But ESPECIAL thanks to Professor Jonathan Raper and Save Our Island's Dave Parham, who convinced us we could take it on and presented our case, Anne Skennerton, Chair of HIRA, who personally signed a £48,000 contract with lawyers with no idea how we'd pay it, and Save Rook Farm's Chris Pearsall, who organised the publicity to make sure we could.

We've given it our best shot. We now have to wait patiently to find out whether the Planning Inspector rejects it, or imposes restrictions.

And that will effectively decide the appeals for Saltmarsh Lane and Oysters 2 which we knew would follow, which could be another 140 houses.

300 new Barratt Homes at Rook Farm would be a disaster for Hayling Island - our biggest development ever, adding up to 600 cars to our one access road and bridge, and 1,000 more people, and years of disruptive construction traffic. It had over 2,200 planning objections, also the biggest number ever.

Barratt Homes (through their Gladman subsidiary) went to Planning Appeal, and hired a top flight King's Counsel. And Havant Borough Council did not oppose it, so those 300 extra houses would have been approved unless we'd fought it.

HIRA (Hayling Island Residents' Association), Save Rook Farm and Save Our Island had a strong case, based on traffic, flooding, infrastructure, sewage, Brent Geese and nature. And most unusually for a community group, the Planning Inspector granted us full 'Rule 6' representation in the Public Inquiry.

We appointed Leigh Day, the UK's top solicitors for planning and environmental cases, who won the 2025 Tournerbury Woods Judicial Review against Havant Borough Council. Private Judicial Reviews against public bodies are notoriously difficult to win, but they did.

They recommended the same winning barrister, which is why we increased our initial target to £48,000.

Thank you for showing how much we really care about keeping our beautiful Hayling Island safe. More information on the HIRA website.

The HIRA committee , Save Rook Farm and Save Our Island .