ODIHAM Parish Council has moved to ease concerns over a proposed development site.

The council’s neighbourhood plan team have clarified that they are proposing a C2 facility at Cownfields. That means a residential care home with nursing facilities for the elderly.

Anxieties boiled over at an extraordinary parish meeting last month. Locals were worried about what a ‘high dependency care home’ really meant.

They wanted to know what sort of people the home might accommodate, and whether residents might pose a threat to security. There were concerns about the loss of highly-valued views of the open country, due to the height and size of the proposed new buildings.

The parish council says the plans have been updated, but that they cannot dictate precisely what services a C2 facility might offer – only that usage must come within a spectrum that could range from respite care to a full dementia facility – or a mixture of the two.

The reason it cannot dictate the future use of the premises, says the council, is that usage will be driven by market forces influencing the private operators, who will oversee the construction of the home.

The Onward Plan for Odiham and North Warnborough states its aim as ‘shaping future housing and development in the area’. The report attempts to clarify the situation by offering more information for the ‘residential care home with nursing facilities’.

The fresh guidance is based on evidence from the council’s consultation process, which spanned a period of 12 months.

Local residents were initially concerned that a C2A facility might be intended to accommodate young offenders or inmates from secure hospitals. But councillors have clarified that was not the case.

The planning parameters are now in the final stages of being ironed out by the steering group for the land next to the Crownfields site.

The emerging parameters include a restriction on vehicle access to the care home, and any new housing development. The intention is to allow access from the Alton Road only – and not by Crownfields, Recreation Road, Salmons Road or Buffins Road.

For nearby residents, it will come as a relief to learn that the new development will be restricted to just two storeys. And there is an assurance that new car parking and space of pick-up and drop-off will be provided to serve Leapfrog’s Nursery.

That will help to alleviate the traffic and parking hassle which currently beset the neighbourhood. The new site will also offer facilities to enhance the safety of children and parents walking to school.

The site will include a long-awaited footpath for people walking from the RAF. And it will offer a safer route for pedestrians going to and from Robert May’s School.

The plan will soon be presented to Odiham Parish Council for approval. Then it will be submitted to Hart District Council, which will organise a further round of consultation. So residents will have another chance to make comments, and provide feedback on the final version of the plan.

In previous consultations, the Steering Group proposed five key criteria. The largest response – highlighted by 38 percent – related to the issue: “As far as possible, development should not impact detrimentally on conservation areas, listed buildings and views valued by the community."