PLANS for a major mixed housing, business and leisure development for the Hogmoor Inclosure in Whitehill have been unveiled by developers.
A development comprising of 175 homes, around 20 small business units and workshops, and a pub or a restaurant has been unmasked which will see the 9.74 hectares of woodland area, from behind the Jet garage to Whitehill Village Hall, developed.
Submitted by Barton Willmore on behalf of Viking Property Holdings Ltd, the application is expected to draw strong opinions from local residents and councillors.
This is because the application is not proposing to develop the former MoD land along the lines of the local plan Ð the development blueprint of the district.
The adopted local plan allocates the northern half of the woodland site for business use and the southern end for leisure use in a bid to try and encourage an economic growth and redress the lack of leisure facilities in Bordon and Whitehill.
This sparked hopes that a bowling alley or another leisure facility would be built there but the applicant claims that this is merely a pipe dream and says that it can instead offer the town the best deal.
Contained within the proposals are plans for;
l 175 two, three, four and five bedroom homes
l 2,346 sq metres of small business and workshop units
l A 465 sq metre pub or restaurant
l A new access from the A325 Petersfield Road
l The reinstatement of a central wetland ÔfeatureÕ which has been artificially drained
l A safeguarded habitat for native badgers
The developer also proposes to give some money to the neighbouring Whitehill Village Hall for improvements to the building.
In its planning statement to East Hampshire District Council, Barton Willmore claims that plans to develop the site for purely leisure and business are not realistic and that it will only be a mixed development plan that could have success.
The applicant says that the site has been unsuccessfully marketed to the leisure and business industry since early 2000.
Its planning statement says: ÒThe results of the marketing campaign indicate that there has been no interest from conventional leisure users such as health and fitness, bowling, bingo, snooker, family entertainment, cinema etc, as these occupiers are seeking a larger and more accessible catchment than a town the size of Bordon can offer.
ÒInterest has been indicated from class A3 users such as fast food, pub and restaurant.
ÒThere is some indication of local demand from businesses within the Bordon area for units up to 200 sq m for business/light industrial units at an affordable rent.Ó
The applicant argues that East Hampshire District council should instead reallocate the site for housing and drop its plans to develop other local sites for housing including the Walldown Triangle and the Moorlands sandpit in Hogmoor Road.
ÒIn the Whitehill/Bordon area the emerging local plan allocates land at Walldown Triangle for 50 dwellings,Ó the applicant says.
ÒThis site is a greenfield and well wooded extension to the urban area which is sequentially inferior to the land west of Petersfield Road. The other housing allocation at Hogmoor Road (50 dwellings) is partly previously developed land but its location for housing is poor. It is unlikely to be attractive to the housing market.
ÒThe release of this single site west of Petersfield Road would avoid the need to identify both the Walldown and Hogmoor Road allocations and additionally avoid the need to identify a further controversial greenfield allocation in another area of the district.Ó
Access to the proposed development would be from the A325 Petersfield Road by way of a new junction half-way along the Hogmoor Inclosure.
But the applicant has not yet submitted a vital traffic study to planners which has held up its registration and, as a result, the public consultation over the proposals.
East Hampshire District Council told The Herald that it hopes that application will be registered and the public consultation over the plans will begin next week enabling local residents to air their views.Water comWaa