Fareham planning for 7,000 new homes by 2037 - with residents 'shocked' at the number in Warsash

Councillors at Fareham Borough Council approved the Publication Local Plan on Thursday, October 22.

The plan aims to outline the development of the borough – ranging from housing need to environmental sites – until 2037.

The council had ripped up its previous attempt at a local plan in 2018, following central government changing the number of homes required in the borough.

Now the new local plan is to go before the public for a six-week consultation – and some residents are already ‘shocked’ at areas earmarked to meet Fareham’s housing need.

Hilary Megginson, who has previously led a petition with 2,500 signatures against developments in the borough’s western wards, spoke at the council meeting to warn that the plan threatens Fareham’s countryside.

She said: ‘We are shocked by the number of dwellings proposed in the western wards.

‘In 2015, there were 15 dwellings proposed. In 2017, that jumped to 800. Now it is 995.

‘This stripping of green fields and countryside is excessive.’

SEE ALSO: Railway expansion planned by Network Rail between Portsmouth and Southampton

A total of 100 homes are planned at the Warsash Maritime Academy and 824 homes could be built on the land around Greenaway Lane, among four other smaller sites in the area.

But Fareham has seen projected housing need for the whole borough steadily reduce over the years, according to council leader Sean Woodward.

He said: ‘What has changed between the very dismal – in housing terms - draft plan that we put forward a couple of years ago is that the government has changed the goal posts on a number of occasions.

‘We’re still looking to Welborne to make a very significant contribution to are housing figures – it’s about 40 per cent of the total.’

The publication local plan will go before the public as the council’s first virtual consultation, with a special edition of Fareham Today to be delivered to every household across over the next week.

The consultation will be live on the council’s website from Friday, November 6, and will run until Friday December 18, at fareham.gov.uk/localplanconsultation.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

The News is more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription to support our journalism.

You can subscribe here for unlimited access to Portsmouth news online - as well as our new Puzzles section.