THE end is in site for residents of Ramshill who have fought a four-year battle against noise from a neighbouring industrial site.
Now the former Diametric factory at 38 Ramshill looks set to be redeveloped as offices, after outline planning permission for the change was granted by East Hampshire District CouncilÕs south planning committee on Thursday night.
The nightmare began for homeowners in Ramshill and Hoggarth Close in 1997, when Diametric began work in the £750,000 extension on the site.
Residents waged a long battle with EHDC that culminated with the Ombudsman forcing the council to apologise and compensate residents for its failure to control noise from the site.
The site, which has changed hands twice, was taken over by French firm Sermo last year, which scaled down production at the factory, but a question mark has always hung over any future development.
At one stage it was thought that the site would be bought by Bryant Homes and incorporated into the huge housing development planned at Ramshill.
Now Breamore Develop-ments wants to transform the former factory into offices.
The company will have to remove existing air-conditioning fans, a major source of residentsÕ woe, as a condition of planning permission, and an acoustic barrier will also have to be erected to reduce noise to neighbouring properties.
The development could include a mezzanine floor in the rear of the building that will increase the floor space by 400m sq.
Chairman of the committee, Sue Halstead, said: ÒThis is a much-welcomed development, notwithstanding what local residents have had to put up with.Ó
Petersfield Town Council welcomed the plan in June and believe that it could mean more jobs for the town.