TWO new planning applications for a total of 169 new homes in the countryside between Farnham and Aldershot have surfaced just days before councillors are expected to reinforce the ‘strategic gap’ restricting development between the two towns.

PLOT (Farnham) LLP has outlined plans for 105 new homes on a 29-acre site currently occupied by the Farnham Park Hotel off the Six Bells roundabout in Hale Road, while another developer Farnham Estates has applied for permission to build 64 homes at Green Lane Farm on the corner of the B3206 Badshot Lea Road and Monkton Lane.

Both occupy greenfield sites in the so-called ‘strategic gap’ between Farnham and Aldershot - a key local planning policy discouraging development between the two towns to avoid urban sprawl.

Farnham’s emerging Neighbourhood Plan, which is expected to be signed off by Farnham Town Council for its final stage of consultation this evening (Thursday), reinforces this policy and will be a determining factor in the fate of both applications.

The first application by PLOT (Farnham) LLP proposes to demolish the Farnham Park Hotel, currently home to the Danielli Italian restaurant, and replace it with a mix of 105 one to four-bedroom homes, including 32 ‘affordable’ homes and a new community building such as a health centre, creche or day nursery.

It also proposes extending Farnham Park to provide more Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace (SANG) attracting homeowners away from the protected heathland surrounding Farnham, and comes after the landowners withdrew an earlier application for 189 plans following criticism by residents and councillors.

The site’s capacity for housing is rejected in the emerging Farnham Neighbourhood Plan, however, which states: “Development of this significant site would have a harmful impact on landscape of high value and sensitivity...adjoining Farnham Park historic park and garden.”

Half a mile to the east at Green Lane Farm, Badshot Lea, Farnham Estates proposes building a mix of 64 one to four-bedroom homes, including 22 affordable, on a greenfield site currently used for animal grazing.

It proposes a new access from Monkton Lane next to Farnham Rugby Club and a ‘bespoke’ block of 12 affordable one and two-bed apartments at the intersection of Hurlands Close and Monkton Lane.

Unlike Farnham Park Hotel, the Green Lane site is not explicitly ruled out for housing in the Neighbourhood Plan. But it does also fall outside the defined ‘built-up area boundaries’ of Farnham and is therefore within the protected strategic gap between Farnham and Aldershot.

Setting out why protecting the separate identity of Farnham is a “key objective”, the new draft Neighbourhood Plan states: “The gap between the built-up areas of Farnham (at Badshot Lea and Weybourne) and Aldershot to the north and north east is already very narrow. This countryside comprises an area of high landscape value and sensitivity.

“Any intensification of development in the narrow gap beyond the defined Built-Up Area Boundary would have the effect of reducing the separate identity of the two distinct settlements and increasing the coalescence between them and would be inappropriate.

“The remaining gap between Farnham and Aldershot should be retained to prevent the neighbouring towns merging into one another; to check the unrestricted sprawl of the two large built-up areas; to assist in safeguarding the countryside from encroachment in this environmentally sensitive location and to preserve the setting and special character of Farnham."

To view and comment on either application visit the website and search for references WA/2016/1323 (Farnham Park Hotel) or WA/2016/1335 (Green Lane Farm), or to view the new draft Neighbourhood Plan visit www.farnham.gov.uk.

• Farnham Town Council has responded to concerns that the new draft Farnham Neighbourhood Plan does not provide adequate protection for the countryside north west of Farnham town centre.

Though much of the countryside between Farnham and Folly Hill is currently designated an Area of Great Landscape Value (AGLV), this designation has not been renewed in the emerging Neighbourhood Plan - prompting criticism by the North West Farnham Residents Association.

However, on publication of the new draft plan last week, it emerged that the countryside between Farnham and Folly Hill is to be incorporated in a new Area of High Landscape Value and Sensitivity (AHLVS) protecting the whole of the historic Old Park area west of Farnham Castle.