Welborne: New Town Near Fareham Approved
9 June 2015, 07:32 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50
A controversial new 6,000 home town north of Fareham will go ahead, after being approved by councillors.
Welborne will be built just north of the M27 - also including four schools and shops.
The scheme has proved controversial, with protests over building on greenfield land and worries about the impact on infrastructure such as roads.
The Welborne Plan and the Development Sites and Policies Plan were both previously declared sound by independent government planning inspector David Hogger in a report.
Both plans incorporate all the main modifications to each plan that Mr. Hogger requested of the council following separate public hearing sessions held in October and November 2014. In his report, Mr. Hogger said the council had proposed the modifications and he had recommended their inclusion after considering representations.
No further modifications were required for either plan so both were put forward for formal adoption by the Council at a special meeting on Thursday 8 June.
The adoption of the Welborne Plan now provides the blueprint for the development of the new community of approximately 6,000 homes with supporting employment, retail and infrastructure, located to the north of the M27 motorway.
The Development Sites and Policies Plan sets out how the council is allocating land for housing, how growth is being planned for and how the natural environment will be protected. The Plan, which covers the period to 2026, allocates housing sites within Fareham Town Centre and in other urban areas in the borough.
Executive Member for Planning and Development, Councillor Keith Evans said:
"The formal adoption of these plans by the council means we can now work with developers to get the very best for the borough while meeting the government's requirement for new housing in this area.
"Importantly these plans also provide strong policies that we can use to reject those applications in unsuitable areas which do not meet our aspirations for the borough.
"It has been a long path to get to this formal adoption stage but we feel very strongly we have got the right plans for Fareham and its realistic and sustainable development for the next 10 years and beyond."
Executive Leader of the Council, Councillor Seán Woodward said:
"Landowners who want to develop sites in the borough - including the land earmarked for Welborne - now have clear guidelines on how to proceed and what is expected of them and of the council. Importantly the council is now armed with strong policies to fight off unwanted and undesirable development.
"We now await planning applications for the Welborne site - the ball is in the developers' court to come forward with applications that accord with the Plan. But the adoption of these plans means we can now tap into a multi-million pound investment in infrastructure in the Borough that will make these developments sustainable."
