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Planning boss backs megashed

From the archive, first published Thursday 20th Sep 2007.

CONTROVERSIAL plans for the development of Andover Airfield are in line with the borough local plan and don't contradict aspirations set out in the Andover Vision document, according to Test Valley Borough Council's head of planning.

At a meeting of Andover Councillors' Forum the planning boss, Mrs Madalene Winter, also demolished the arguments that the proposed megashed', with its extra jobs, would destabilise the local employment and housing markets.

But the council is far from happy about some aspects of the proposal and she said it was local planning officers who told the applicants, Goodmans, to go away and return with refreshed and amended plans.

She confirmed the highway authority has still not given the application the green light.

The proposals would see one of Britain's biggest buildings erected to house Tesco's warehousing and distribution hub for the south east.

Responding to a question from Peter Derbyshire, who is campaigning against the plan, Mrs Winter said: "There is a misunderstanding of what is in the local plan - a business park with classes B1, B2 and B8.

"The current planning application does what the allocation says and has B1 (offices and light industry) and B8 (warehousing and distributon).

"The local plan does not set out any criteria for quantum for each class - this is a matter for negotiation."

Andover Vision talks about Andover Airfield as a business park including industrial and storage facilities. Warehousing and distribution is specifically mentioned as a strong business cluster' to build on.

"Nothing is inconsistent with Andover Vision or its policies," she said.

Asked about the arrival of 2,000 jobs when the town only has 300 registered unemployed she said there was a considerable amount of concealed unemployment and that around 8,000 people commute to other areas for work.

"The jobs market is fairly fluid and things can change in the local area but from the economic development officer's point of view he doesn't see it creating a huge imbalance," she said.

But she said planning officers were not at all happy with details of the application' and that developers needed to do a lot more to improve their submission.

The impact on residents in Red Post Lane was one concerning aspect she mentioned.