Public inquiry will decide whether 125 homes can be built in Funtley, just outside Fareham

Fareham Borough Council’s planning committee originally refused the planning application in November - now the planning appeal will be dealt with by a public inquiry.

55 homes were given the green light in September 2020 only for the developers to apply for 70 additional homes which attracted criticism from residents.

The additional homes were refused over concerns about sustainability, nutrient mitigation, lack of affordable housing and the harm it could do to the character and appearance of Funtley.

Ed Morell, chairman of the Funtley village society said: ‘Our reason against this is we’ve got Welborne to the north of us which is going to be 6,000 homes.

‘We don’t think it’s sustainable with the amount of traffic that will be additionally generated.

‘We don’t think it’s a suitable place for all those additional houses simply because of the characteristics, the typography and the general makeup of the roads - lots of reasons that we’ve argued over the years.

‘Because of the changes in the regulations and housing needs a lot of developers are now saying they’re going to appeal and essentially they’re winning because their argument is that there’s a shortage of housing.

‘Whilst the planning committee may have objected it if we look at similar appeals they’ve gone through.

‘We believe we’ve got sound arguments but those arguments were made right at the very beginning and they were rejected by the planning committee - we’re not confident this will be rejected.

‘They’ll say that because of the delays at Welborne and various other things we’re filling that gap.

‘Whilst we totally believe that we have totally sound arguments for that to be rejected, we’re not confident because of how the whole system works - we hope so but maybe we’ll be surprised.’