New homes plans set out for Petersfield site
PLANS to turn a fourth green field site in Petersfield into housing will be scrutinised by the public on Saturday.
An exhibition to display proposals for 100 homes on land south east of The Causeway is being held at The Avenue Pavilion between 11am and 4pm.
Land owners Fairfield Estates have prepared the exhibition, which will give people a chance to offer suggestions about altering the plans, ahead of them being submitted to East Hampshire District Council later this autumn.
The exhibition follows similar displays regarding 275 homes on Causeway Farm, 96 homes on Penns Field near the Taro Leisure Centre and 100 homes on Larcombe Road earlier this year.
Protest group The 4sites Campaign was launched by the Petersfield Society last month to oppose all four schemes, which would see 570 homes built in town if each received planning permission.
Organiser Tony Struthers said 429 names were collected on an anti-housing petition at the Petersfield August Festivities on Sunday.
He said: "The majority of the names by far were seriously concerned about all the proposals for Petersfield.
"They were particularly concerned about the land around Penns Field and this latest one for land south east of The Causeway.
"It looks like we will get an application for that shortly."
The Petersfield Society's chairman David Jeffery added people rejected all four proposals because Petersfield did not have the infrastructure for them.
He said: "One argument The Petersfield Society was keen to put across was that it was not aiming to block all development within the town for the future but that, at the present time, it was out of the question that we should accept 570 new dwellings within our borders."
Nicola and Dave Winter live on the Causeway, next to the proposed development site, and their garden runs alongside the field.
Nicola said: "What I want to know is - what is the real need?
"We're told there is a need for more housing but I'd like to explore that.
"Is there really a long waiting list for housing in Petersfield?
"The infrastructure can't possibly cope with all these extra houses.
"We already have flats and houses going up opposite us, on the Jolly Sailor site."
Husband Dave said: "We live in a pretty, rural market town which is why people want to move here.
"But if it keeps spreading, the town will change beyond recognition. It won't be a small market town any more. Will people still want to live here when it looks more like Waterlooville?
"If all the Causeway developments go ahead, we will be surrounded by houses.
"We'd feel like moving, I think. We moved here because we wanted to be in the countryside but if hundreds of new houses are built, we won't feel as if we're in the countryside any more.
"We won't see deer in our garden any more; we won't see the bats. That would be terribly sad."
Nicola added: "And with all the additional cars, it's going to be like the old Causeway, before the bypass. It'll be horrendous. It's bad enough now.
"Did the developers not see what this road is like at rush hour, when children are being dropped off at the nursery and at school? It's often at a standstill."
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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