Council turns down bid to build new housing estate on fields in Portchester

PLANS to build a new 120 home housing estate have been thrown out by a council.

Persimmon Homes wanted to build the estate on land to the north of Cranleigh Road and west of Wicor Primary School in Portchester.

But Fareham Borough Council’s planning committee ruled against it.

Councillor Nick Walker, chairman of the committee, said: ‘Following the application we asked residents for their views.

‘From this it was made clear that there is a strong feeling against houses being built on this site.

‘This area of countryside is not allocated for housing and after considering a number of planning issues it has been agreed that the planning application for development at Cranleigh Road is refused.’

Persimmon Homes had planned a large open space and a play area.

Headteacher of nearby Wicor Primary School welcomed the news.

Mark Wildman said: ‘I am naturally very pleased at the outcome and I think it reflects strong concerns for a much-valued piece of countryside.

‘However, I am mindful that this decision might be appealed and then we face a potentially much harder battle to save this valuable coastal fragment.’

He added: ‘We were able to send some children from our school to attend the meeting so that they could come back to school and let us all know what the process was like.

‘The children really do care about the field and since we have been put in a position of having to fight to save it from destruction they have grown to love it even more.

‘The children understand what’s at stake - what will be lost if the field is destroyed and they don’t like the thought of that one bit.’

Tom Davies, from the Fareham East Conservatives group, put together a petition against the application.

He said: ‘This goes to show that if a community really gets behind a campaign and if there are solid reasons for rejection, that the council will do the right thing.

‘It’s been a super effort from residents over the past couple of years since this situation first arose.’

As previously reported in The News, Persimmon Homes had wanted to build a mix of 135 flats and houses on the 5.5-hectare site.

The most recent application was for 120 homes of which 48 would have been affordable.