17/3/2008

Local News in Fleet

'Throw out mega-depot plans'

COUNCILLORS are being urged to throw out controversial plans for a warehouse complex at a crucial meeting on Wednesday night.

Hart District Council’s planning committee is being recommended by its officers to refuse two applications for a mega-depot on the former Pyestock site between Fleet and Farnborough at a crunch meeting in Aldershot.

A spokesman for developers Astral and Prupim was upbeat despite the report.

A statement said: “We are obviously disappointed that the officers are recommending refusal, particularly as they previously recommended our initial larger proposal should be approved.

“However, while the headline recommendation is disappointing, the content of the report is on whole very favourable.”

Hart’s head of planning, Matthew Evans, has concluded that both the outline and full applications for the former Ministry of Defence site between Fleet and Farnborough are unacceptable and should be refused.

Joint developers Prupim and Astral want to build a warehouse and distribution centre operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"Public interest"

But in his report, Mr Evans concludes that the noise assessment submitted with the applications is not robust enough to ensure that residents living close to the Pyestock site, including those adjacent to the Minley Link, will not be adversely affected by the proposed development.

He considers that the proposed industrial development would diminish the green gap between Fleet and Farnborough, leading to a coming together of the two towns.

Mr Evans also says the applications fail to provide adequate facilities to access the site by walking and cycling and fails to make best possible use of opportunities to reduce the reliance on private cars.

He adds that the proposal is also unacceptable as there is no appropriate legal agreement to cap the level of traffic generated by the proposal or control the lorry routing from the site.

A host of councils have raised objections to the plans, including Crookham Village, Eversley, Heckfield and Odiham parish councils  and Blackwater and Hawley Town Council.

Hart district councillors on the Fleet and Church Crookham Planning Advisory Group have also opposed the schemes, while Rushmoor Borough Council has raised “strong” objections.

Hart District Council said there had been “an extremely high level of public interest” in both applications, with 5,093 letters of objection to the outline plan and 3,382 letters of objection to the detailed application up until February 20.

Campaign group

Cllr Sue Fisher, whose Fleet Pondtail ward adjoins the Pyestock site, is delighted with the officer’s recommendation.

She said: “I’m absolutely thrilled to bits. When the first application appeared three years ago I looked at the map and was concerned that it was only 400 yards away from the nearest homes in Pondtail.”

Cllr Fisher said that luckily someone who works at the nearby Nokia site objected to the application and encouraged other workers to do the same.

The non-political campaign group SPLAT (Stop Pyestock bLot Act Today) then took up the fight, and so far more than 12,000 people have objected to all the applications proposed for the site.

Cllr Stephen Parker, whose Fleet North ward covers the Pyestock site, will open the planning committee debate, which starts at 7pm in the Princes Hall, Aldershot, on Wednesday evening.

A spokesman for Astral and Prupim said the planning officers’ report accepts that the proposals are consistent with local and regional planning policies, that there will be no significant impact on wildlife and that the proposals in relation to air quality are considered sufficient.

He added that the report accepts that the proposals will not have a significant impact on the demand for housing and that they will provide greater job opportunities for local people.

The spokesman added: “The report also confirms that Hampshire County Council and the Highways Agency have raised no objections in relation to the traffic issues, subject to a cap on traffic levels which we have already accepted.

“We find it extraordinary that officers are recommending refusal on the grounds that it will diminish the strategic gap between Fleet and Farnborough when their own expert consultants state that “despite the size of the proposed buildings, it is not considered they will impact upon the integrity of the strategic gap between Fleet and Farnborough”.

For a full report on the meeting see www.fleet-online.co.uk on Thursday, or the Fleet News edition on March 28.

First printed in: The News and Mail Series

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