PLANS for a £500,000 multi-purpose building designed to bring all the local agencies concerned with children under one roof in the centre of Petersfield looked doomed this week.

East Hampshire District Council's planning manager, Ian Ellis, looked set to refuse the plan, under delegated powers.

The plan appears to have failed because it would mean a loss of public open space. This is a concern which is backed by the Hampshire Playing Fields Association, which has formally objected to the scheme.

It is a major blow to the committee which has been planning the Acorns 2000 Early Years Centre building in The Avenue for the past two years.

"This is desperately disappointing and very short-sighted of the planning officers," said secretary Kathy Patten.

"This is a growing town and we wanted to centralise children's services. We believe The Avenue playing field is an excellent site."

She stressed that the Acorn Opportunities playgroup would continue, because it was held in the pavilion, but the future of the toy library and drop-in centre was now uncertain.

These are held in a mobile building next to the pavilion. It has temporary permission which expires later this year.

The ambitious plans for the Acorns 2000 Early Years Centre were submitted to the council last August.

It was envisaged by the EYC committee that the new building would provide a playgroup and other facilities for younger children five days a week, as well as a day-care nursery, pre-school breakfast club and office space for voluntary organisations including Pre-School Alliance and Home Start.

Planning officer Chris Lyons received the plan last August, but he said he was unable to deal with it because of a lack of information. During the past seven months he has had to go back to the group twice for more details.

EHDC received 12 letters of objection to the plan last year and the Early Years Centre met The Avenue residents to try to allay their fears.

But the concerns expressed by the Hampshire Playing Fields Association on the loss of playing fields has apparently added to EHDC planning officers' own worries about what they see as an important informal recreation area.

Mr Lyons told The Herald this week: "We have concerns about this plan. We support the concept of the Early Years Centre, but we do not feel this is the site for it. We think there are other sites which could be considered in Petersfield and we do not think this plan justifies the loss of public open space."

He said The Avenue playing fields were a valuable informal recreational space.

Objections had also been received, he added, to the design and scale of the proposed building, which would at least double the size of The Avenue Pavilion.

The general secretary of the Playing Fields Association, Malcolm Miles, made the formal objection to the plan for the HPFA.

He told EHDC: "Although the Early Years Centre may be a worthy project, HPFA believes that the proposed site is inappropriate."

The Avenue recreation ground was an attractive site, he added, in the heart of residential housing with facilities and opportunities for formal and informal play for children and adults.

"At a time when government policy is to promote healthy lifestyles and increased participation in sport and to protect through legislation the loss of playing fields to development, we feel that this application represents an unacceptable threat."

He said the plans for a large two-storey building, to include office space and meeting rooms, represented an area almost equal to the existing pavilion and car park and at least 13 per cent of the grass field, "an unacceptably large loss at this small 3.8-acre site".

Mr Miles added: "The building appears to be completely unconnected to recreational use of the ground and to compromise future use or development for sport and recreation."

For the Early Years Centre Mrs Patten said: "We believe The Avenue playing fields are an excellent site for us and the Acorns playgroup has been operating there for many years.

"The cabin has been in place for six years, but permission expires later this year. It puts us in a pretty desperate situation as far as the toy library and the drop-in centre is concerned."

She said the cabin was also used for meetings by local parenting groups.

"These groups will all lose their home and the most important concern is the toy library."

She said the group had desperately searched for sites for the centre but no far there had been no alternatives.