Welborne: Plans for electricity substation to power 6,000 homes are approved

There was much praise from councillors about the lengths the architects had gone to in creating an unintrusive facility referred to as an ‘energy centre’ that will house the electricity supply for the 6,000-house town of Welborne to be built over the next 25 years.

John Beresford, managing director of Buckland Development said an electricity substation is necessary for the size of the scheme. He told Fareham Borough Council that the substation will serve Welborne and have the capacity to allow to build in energy supply resilience for the region. At December 14’s planning meeting, councillors approved Welborne’s energy-providing hub substation plans, described as ‘Christmas come early’.

Mark Wyatt, Fareham’s principal planning officer for strategic sites said it looks like a ‘large agricultural building’ which is to be accessed from Forest Lane. He said it will look like a ‘barn’ when it is finished and, because of where it sits in the landscape, it will be nestled down and cut into the rising landscape and there is proposed to be additional planting to screen it from sight.

Along with the substation design is an extensive plan to bury existing overhead power lines and pylon towers underground to enhance the landscape and views of an area that will be known as Dashwood. There is a dual application with Winchester City Council to bury some of the lines and create underground pylon sites.

Some of these existing power lines sit in Winchester’s jurisdiction but it was reported at the meeting that all looks favourable and the scheme will go ahead. Councillor Ian Bastable agreed with the developer that this particular application was ‘more exciting than Christmas’, especially the efforts to hide the substation as ‘commendable’.

He said: ”The innovation that this developer shows in tackling carbon emissions from this site is really commendable. It’s Christmas come early, it’s brilliant.” Mr Wyatt described the building as ‘simple’ in its design and architecture but maintaining an ‘agricultural form’.

He said: “ It has metal framing, green cladding, concrete panelling in its lower half, not dissimilar to a cattle or grain store with a pitched roof that is fairly shallow.” He added: ”It wouldn’t look out of place in a complex of farm buildings in its architecture.”The three transformers required for the building need to be left open and cannot be enclosed. The design is such that from a public vantage point it looks like a continuous building. Councillor Joanne Burton said: ”It’s not often we see applications that change the landscape for the better but in my mind at least this one does.”At the same meeting strategic design documents were approved in order to guide the development at Welborne. Outline permission was approved in 2019 subject to a number of conditions and two were landuse and structuring plans. Change was sort and approved by the developer, geographically to the spread of the district centre and this approval was needed to enable the design work to continue.