PLANNERS at East Hampshire District Council have unveiled far-reaching proposals for Petersfield in their new local plan, which are likely to bring a storm of protest from residents.
The draft proposals were published last Friday but already residents and councillors have pledged to fight the massive development proposals on the Causeway which could shift the centre of Petersfield.
East Hampshire planners are proposing 430 new homes in Petersfield in the next 11 years. They want to build all these homes on the controversial green field site east of the Causeway.
Alongside the houses, East Hampshire District Council wants a site earmarked for a new primary school and a community centre, with an informal recreational space .
Farther out of Petersfield, on the west side of the Causeway, two industrial and business sites are earmarked in the draft proposals.
A third industrial area has been earmarked at Buckmore Farm, where planning permission already exists for a Travel Lodge.
There is to be a two-pronged attack on the shortfall in primary school space in the town.
First, the council wants to expand the existing Herne Junior School, providing an additional infant school on the site. Planners also want a new primary school providing infant and junior education on the Causeway farm site.
These plans would replace Petersfield Infant School which, claim planners, is now at capacity.
The threat of housing on the green field site east of the Causeway is not new. When proposals went before a government inspector at the last local plan inquiry, neighbouring residents formed an action group to fight the plans which became known as SCARP (Stop the Causeway Farm Redevelopment and Planning).
Already EHDC Liberal Democrat leader Teresa Jamieson has expressed her concern at the proposals.
"I am very concerned that despite many different houses around the town being offered by developers, officers are recommending that 430 houses are built in one place," she said this week.
"We have fought several planning proposals and most recently an appeal for a golf course. All have been resisted on environmental grounds. I am sure that local residents will join me in condemning this proposal when it goes to public consultation this autumn."
She said it was little comfort to the people in the vicinity of the Causeway that the overall number of houses in Petersfield had been reduced as they were "destined to have a massive estate built around them along with a possible school and a community centre during the next 11 years."
Mrs Jamieson said she would fight the idea of only one large estate and seek to ensure that development was spread more evenly around the town.
"There are other sites that do not invade the countryside or would be on such an attractive landscape. I encourage everyone to make their opinions known during the consultation period to both myself and the council," added Mrs Jamieson.
Petersfield town councillor and governor of Petersfield Infant School, George Watkinson, told The Herald: "Personally I do not understand where the district council has got its facts from. They seem to be at variance with what I have been told by the local education authority at the school's governors' meetings."
He said concern had been expressed about the lack of infant school places in Petersfield schools. "But we have been categorically told that there will not be a shortfall in infant schools.
"This is one of the reasons the infant school is still at the top of the list for funding to carry out rebuilding."
Mr Watkinson said he was also extremely concerned at the proposals for housing on the Causeway and their effect on traffic.
"With housing, two industrial estates, a school and a community centre on the Causeway the road is just not going to take all the traffic."
He said although the plans would not move the shopping centre of Petersfield, they would "effectively move the town centre".
Mr Watkinson wanted to know why the town council- owned land at Barnfield and Heathfield Road had not been included in the local plan.
Petersfield Mayor John Crowhurst told The Herald he was horrified at plans for industrial development to the west of the Causeway.
"I am concerned about the access, the run-off from the development and the possible flooding of Borough Grove. Also, by expanding the development towards the A3 you are making a very nice pocket of land available to developers in the future for housing – land to the south the Forest View and land to the south of Larkham Road."
He said he believed Buckmore Farm should be earmarked for housing and not industrial use.
"We have to recognise that with the number of houses that we are being forced to build we have not got the land for industrial expansion. One has to be sacrificed for the other and we have to recognise that we are probably a dormitory town and work on that basis."
Resident of The Causeway, Paul Fletcher, has also raised strong objection to the plan for an industrial site.
He told The Herald this week: "Petersfield is going to be turned into another Basingstoke or Reading. Its charm at present is that it is a Hampshire market town and people are out to wreck it."
He said the plans were "unjustifiable, impractical and environmentally unsound".
Principal policy planner Alistair Speirs told The Herald there were environmental and community benefits from allocating one large site for housing in Petersfield such as the planning gain of a new primary school and the community hall.
He said other areas had been investigated but rejected because there were in important areas of countryside, the area of outstanding natural beauty, or did not meet the sustainability criteria.
Proposals in detail – Page 3 of printed edition