ALTON Town Council has added its voice to those of local clubs, organisations and individuals who have registered their objections to the reserved matters (full) application (21068/041) detailing plans for a new sports centre for the town.

It may not have been the bold stand the sporting community was hoping for, in that there was no agreement to challenge the method and outcome of an imposed internal facilities mix which many are arguing will fail to meet the needs of a growing community, but councillors did agree that the scale of the proposed facility was “not big enough to be future proof”.

In reaching a unanimous decision at a meeting of the town council’s planning and transportation committee on Wednesday last week, with ratification at an extraordinary full council meeting immediately after, they were clearly unimpressed with the scale of the proposed facility and its ability to meet the needs of Alton and its wider catchment area over a design life of 60 years.

They were concerned also about access to the site, car parking provision and pedestrian safety during construction, about the impact of the building on Cardiac Rehab, about parking provision in general, reduction in the number of 3G pitches from four to two, and the impact of light spillage on neighbouring residential properties.

Furthermore, there was concern that the proposed new centre would not comply with the spirit of East Hampshire District Council’s (EHDC) joint core strategy in terms of sustainability, as well as other policies in both the joint core strategy and Alton’s Neighbourhood Plan.

The meeting was packed for the occasion with the Alton Society starting the ball rolling by imploring town councillors to “act in the community’s best interests”.

Speaking on behalf of the Society, Rod Eckles drew attention to the outline permission, agreed in September 2015, in which it stated that the details of the internal facilities mix would be “set out within the reserved matters application, following consultation with interested parties”.

While this had clearly not happened, Mr Eckles went on to say: “I am not a lawyer, but when one adds to this the specific requirements contained in the joint core strategy and the neighbourhood plan to provide ‘enhanced’ facilities in any replacement sports centre, it seems obvious … that in these circumstances failure by the planning authority to consider the adequacy of what’s proposed, and to ensure planning policies are complied with, are likely to be liable to legal challenge.”

Pam Jones raised the issue of the new building being less than three metres away from the Cardiac Rehab centre, resulting in a loss of car parking space and of vehicle turning capacity. And she flagged up the proposed access for contractor vehicles, and proposals to cut into the bank in front of the new outdoor bowls facility to provide a single vehicle track, which would mean trucks queuing along Chawton Park Road at a time when Hampshire Highways was preparing to demolish and rebuild Butts Bridge, using Chawton Park Road as a diversion route.

While remaining adamant that what was to be provided was a ‘leisure’ and not a ‘sports’ facility that would not address the needs of the sporting community, anger remained among those on the floor over the lack of public consultation and the nature of the tendering process used to arrive at the internal facilities mix for the centre.

Speaking as chairman of Alton and District Sports Council, Joe Walters stressed that while a glaring omission from the reserved matters application, in his opinion the facilities mix had been based on “flawed, out-of-date data” resulting in an overall loss of sporting facilities and should be challenged. He was supported by fellow sports enthusiasts, urging Alton Town Council, as the landowner, to defer making a decision on grounds that “the current plan was not fit for purpose” and would not provide ‘like for like’ let alone ‘enhanced’ provision. There was particular mention made of the loss of squash courts, inadequate studio and sports hall space, and a downgrading of climbing and pool facilities.

County councillor Andrew Joy pointed out that the existing sports centre currently serves a population of 18,261 and, with a projected population of 26,000 by 2050 in Alton alone. a like-for-like facility was not acceptable.

Town councillor Graham Titterington had calculated that the gross floor space of the new sports centre has been reduced from 8,000 square metres to 6,368 square metres which, with 916 square metres given over to a private spa facility, will result in a reduction of 32 per cent in floor space, making it “significantly smaller” in terms of usable space than existing centre.

Speaking on behalf of Cardiac Rehab, former sports centre manager Chris Youngs flagged up the impact the new centre would have on the facility in terms of loss of car parking, access, noise disturbance, loss of light, increased risk of flooding, and curtailing the ability of the centre to expand.

Alton Town Council joins 100 members of the public who have objected to the plans, as well as Sport England which has objected on grounds of failure to protect existing facilities and to secure adequate replacement.