ESSO Petroleum Company Ltd has announced ‘Option J’ as the preferred corridor for its Southampton to London Pipeline Project - avoiding a controversial route through Farnham town centre’s historic streets and the unspoilt countryside to the south of the town.

Esso’s current underground pipeline supplies aviation fuel to some of the UK’s busiest airports and runs 105km from its Fawley Refinery near Southampton to its West London Terminal storage facility in Hounslow, passing through Alton as it links up with the Alton Pumping Station on the A31 at Upper Froyle.

But with the key piece of infrastructure in need of an upgrade, three possible routes were considered to replace 90km of the pipeline between Alton and Hounslow:

• Option J following the existing route through the Crondall area,

• Option Q through Alice Holt Forest and the Frensham area,

• and Option M, passing through Farnham town centre within metres of the town’s Grade I-listed castle.

Having run a first consultation between March 19 and April 30 to hear the views of local communities about the proposed corridors, Esso has confirmed the two routes that most closely follow the existing pipeline, options G (from Boorley Green to Alton) and J, are to be progressed to the next stage of route development.

Esso says a total of 11 consultation exhibitions were held across Hampshire and Surrey, among them Wrecclesham and Alton, attended overall by more than 1,900 people and resulting in more than 1,000 consultation responses.

After the close of the consultation, an independent expert collated all the consultation responses. The technical data, engineering and environmental experts and the in-depth analysis of the consultation responses have helped to select a preferred pipeline corridor to progress.

A possible route by Frimley Park Hospital was included in Option J, but has been removed due to concerns around traffic management and obstruction to emergency services.

Esso’s project executive for the Pipeline Project, Tim Sunderland, said: “We thank everyone who took part in the consultation. The feedback received was very helpful.

“Now that we have selected a preferred pipeline corridor, we will continue our conversations with local authorities, parish councils and landowners, where necessary, to understand local environmental and engineering features, as well as the potential impacts of the pipeline.

“We will now develop a route, which will follow the preferred corridor, that will typically be a width closer to 20 to 30 metres.”

Explaining the need for the work, Esso points out that pipelines are considered a safe, secure and low impact way to transport fuel, claiming the Fawley to Hounslow pipeline keeps an estimated 100 road tankers off the road each day.

However, the fuel giant’s proposal to re-route the pipeline through Farnham was met with consternation by town centre residents, some of whom formed a campaign to garner objections to so-called Option M.

Responding to Esso’s decision to favour the less-intrusive Option J, one such resident John Hemsley told the Herald: “Many of us thought this was the most likely option and Esso’s preferred route at outset. Never-the-less it’s a big relief!”

A spokesman for Crondall Parish Council, the authority perhaps most affected by Esso’s chosen route locally, said: “Crondall Parish Council recognises the need for a pipeline to minimise road traffic through the area.

“The existing pipeline, that passes close to Crondall, has caused no problems in the past and we don’t envisage any issues in the future.  We will respond to the next phase of the consultation at the appropriate time.”

A report on Esso’s first consultation and preferred options is expected to be published in the autumn ahead of a second public consultation. For more detail of the preferred routes, visit www.slpproject.co.uk .