A HOMELY touch has been added by a Grayshott Primary School pupil for new residents of a major development of 80 houses in the village.

Cala Homes, the developers of the new residential site next to Applegarth Farm, recently invited Key Stage 2 pupils at the nearby school to design a ‘welcome to your new home’ card for Applegarth Vale purchasers.

The winning pupil Pola was awarded a £50 gift voucher and will see her

design reproduced and presented to every new home owner at Applegarth Vale.

The 80 new homes were approved as an “enabling development” to fund a £4.1m expansion of site owner Applegarth Farm to include a cookery school, market garden, food hall, children’s play barn and 130-cover restaurant as well as an artisan cabin village, a home for small artisan producers.

Building work got under way earlier this year and two show homes have just opened at Applegarth Vale for prospective buyers to view. There have already been five reservations since the off-plan launch in September.

The homes proposed range from one-bed maisonettes to three-bedroom and four-bed family homes built beside and behind the farm and the open space area developers were required to provide, which includes ponds, paths and an informal children’s play area.

The suitable alternative natural greenspace (SANG) was required to mitigate the potential impact of new residents on the Thames Basin Heath Special Protection Area.

In 2015, planning committee members supported their officers’ recommendations and refused an outline plan for 80 homes on the greenfield site, because it would reduce the ‘local gap’ between Grayshott and Headley Down.

But East Hampshire District Council officers backed a revised outline application, approved in 2017, because it increased the number of affordable homes from 32 to 44 and would deliver 18 new full-time jobs through the linked expansion of the Applegarth Farm business.

Grayshott Parish Council said: “The total package is in the best interests of the community.”