Pyestock applications recommended for refusal

HART District Council’s Head of Planning and Environmental Regulation Matthew Evans has issued his recommendation for the two applications relating to the Pyestock North site (also known as Hartland Park).

The Council’s Planning committee, who will make the final decision, is due to consider the applications at a meeting at Princes Hall, Aldershot next Wednesday (19).

Mr Evans said that following careful consideration of all of the issues he had concluded that as proposed both the outline and full applications were unacceptable and should be refused.

His report concludes that the noise report submitted with the applications is not sufficiently robust to ensure that residents living in the vicinity of the Pyestock site, including those adjacent to the Minley Link, are not adversely affected by the development.

He also considers that the size of the proposal and its location would lessen the Strategic Gap between Fleet and Farnborough thereby leading to coalescence or coming together of the two towns.

He also recommends refusal, in line with recommendations from Hampshire County Council and the Highways Agency, on the basis that adequate arrangements are not in place to ensure the protection of the local road network and the M3 from the additional traffic that the development would bring or to provide enhancements to the road network.

The applicants, Prudential Property Investment Managers and Astral Developments have already appealed to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Hazel Blears, in relation to one of the two schemes. The council has to let her know what its position will be for the public inquiry – which is likely sometime in the next 12 months.