5/2/2008

Local News in Fleet

Councils row over Pyestock

A row has broken out between neighbouring councils over plans to build a massive warehouse complex on former Ministry of Defence land between Fleet and Farnborough.

Rushmoor Borough Council — which covers Farnborough — has asked Hart District Council for more time to consider the mega-depot plan for the former Pyestock site.

However Peter Moyle, leader of Conservative-run Rush-moor, is furious that Hart, which has the power to grant or reject planning permission, has turned down the request.

Cllr Moyle said his council only wanted a short extension for a couple of weeks.

He explained: “Our development control committee meets on February 27 and we wanted an extension so that our committee can discuss the Pyestock development before we submit our response for the consultation.

“That is a perfectly normal thing to do. Adjoining authorities often ask for extensions because dates of meetings don’t coincide.”

Cllr Moyle, who represents the St John’s area of Cove bordering the Pyestock site, said he was annoyed with Hart for ignoring the request. He added: “It’s totally unnecessary and undemocratic.”

Cllr Moyle has written to David Neighbour, Hart’s Liberal Democrat leader, asking him to overrule the decision.

The letter states: “I am writing to strongly object to your council’s decision not to extend the consultation period by only a few weeks so that Rushmoor’s residents can make their views known to their development control committee. The Conservative-led administration in Rushmoor believes that this decision flies in the face of proper democratic debate and representation, and I ask you to over-ride it.”

Cllr Moyle told the Mail: “The important thing is to allow people to express their opinions and for our own planning officers to take a look at the scheme. I am not very happy and I am surprised that an adjoining authority has turned us down.
“If a request comes in for us, our planning officers would discuss it with me first. It is down to the leadership.”

Cllr Moyle said that if Cllr Neighbour does not overrule the decision he would make further representations.
However, Cllr Neighbour said: “Planning, and particularly development control, is a non-executive function and leaders of council have no jurisdiction over what it does.
“A leader cannot intervene on their own — it’s illegal and you can’t do it.”

Cllr Neighbour said he had not seen Cllr Moyle’s letter but would probably get it in his post today (Tuesday).
He told the Mail: “The fact that you’ve got a copy and I haven’t yet says a lot. If he is that angry about it why hasn’t he had a meeting earlier? That’s the difference between the two councils.”

Cllr Neighbour said Hart’s planning committee would discuss an officer paper on the way forward for the Pyestock application on February 13.
“The paper will ask councillors things like if they want a webcam to cover the committee debate and look at hiring a hall big enough to take the hundreds of people that would be expected to attend.”

Cllr Neighbour added: “People are understandably  excited about this application but there’s no reason to believe that the district council will not give it full diligence. We’ve had many hundreds of objections to the applications and we’ll take them all on board. There is a lot of scaremongering going on and that’s a shame.”

Fleet and Farnborough residents have already posted more than 2,200 objections to the Pyestock plan.

They warn the mega-depot will generate noise and pollution with huge lorries, vans and cars visiting the site 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Campaigners are concerned the unsightly development would harm conservation areas, including Fleet Pond Nature Reserve, and ruin the strategic green gap between Fleet and Farnborough.

Joint developer PRUPIM and Astral proposes ten new buildings for distribution warehouse use, ranging from 27,000sq ft to 330,000sq ft. It says the site is ideally located for a distribution depot.

Steven Moss, project director for PRUPIM, said: “The proposals will clean up this contaminated and derelict site and bring it back into productive use. It is line with the council’s local plan, which proposes that the site is used for employment purposes.

“We recognise that the application has generated opposition from residents but believe that there is a very strong planning case for what we are proposing.
“We would encourage residents to respond to the council’s consultation process.”

First printed in: Farnborough News and Mail