PLANS to bring a John Lewis at Home and Waitrose combined superstore to Basing View are being recommended for approval this week.

A planning application for the landmark store was submitted to Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council by Muse Developments, the company spearheading the regeneration of Basing View, in October 2013.

Planning officers have now recommended the plan for approval, and councillors on the borough’s development control committee will make the final decision at a meeting on Wednesday, March 12 at 6.30pm.

The proposed 78,000sq ft John Lewis at Home and Waitrose store will be built on council-owned land as part of £200million plans to regenerate Basing View.

A customer café, 416-space car-park, staff offices and service yard are also included in the plans along with the addition of a taxi rank at the front of the new store and a bus stop to the north of the store’s proposed car park.

The planned development also includes two council-owned car parks to the west of Basing View, and the site of former pub Poison, will be the location of a new landscaped area.

A major overhaul of the road network around the site is also proposed with key changes set to include: n The western arm of Upper Basing View (extending north to south) will be moved 50m west within the site and will be widened to accommodate shared cycle and pedestrian footways on both sides of the carriageway.

  • The subway connecting two council car parks to the west of the site to the proposed John Lewis store will be filled in and replaced with a toucan crossing.
  • A reconfigured junction between the western arm of Basing View and Lower Basing View will provide an exit and left turn only junction from Lower Basing View.
  • A new stepped and ramped access to the underpass opposite Matrix House which connects Basing View to Eastrop Roundabout.

The planned superstore will be only the second of its kind in the country. If the plans are agreed, the store, which will create 300 new jobs, is set to open in 2015.