'˜It's unreasonable to make Warsash take homes brunt'

The Warsash Residents’ Association has written to Fareham Borough Council after the draft local plan earmarked a potential 800 new homes in the village.

Chairman Brian Smale said: ‘What the WRA proposes is that the number of new homes built in Warsash be greatly reduced, to 400 or fewer, and that the remainder be built on Newlands Farm.

‘That location has the great advantage of having the Stubbington bypass built right next to it, so providing excellent connections to the A27, M27 and places to the east.

‘This road network will have far more capacity than the already overloaded roads in the area around Warsash.’

Under the draft local plan, 100 homes are proposed for the site of the Warsash Maritime Acadmey and 700 at the north and south of Greenaway Lane.

Brian said: ‘We accept that more houses need to be built in Fareham but it is wholly unreasonable to make Warsash take the brunt of these, along with Portchester.’

Five planning applications have been put forward for the site east of Brook Lane and south of Greenaway Lane and are due for decision at the end of this month.

‘In the worst case, if the government inspector overrides a decision by Fareham Borough not to allow the building of 700 homes between Lockswood Road and Brook Lane, we consider it vital that the five development proposals be combined to create an integrated scheme with proper infrastructure and well-engineered connections to the existing road network.’

Executive leader of the council, Councillor Sean Woodward said: ‘Out of all the 200 plus sites put forward by landowners for development the one which came pretty well bottom in investigations and assessments was Newlands Farm.

‘The quality of the landscape is a huge factor and that is why it is in a designated strategic countryside gap.

‘This means that virtually any site in the borough would be preferable to Newlands.’