AN EXTRA 750 homes could be built on Manydown after councillors agreed to press ahead with three options to increase the amount of homes built on the development.

As previously reported by The Gazette, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council submitted their draft Local Plan, which will guide where new homes are built across the borough up to 2029, in October 2014.

The borough council’s decision-making Cabinet rubberstamped plans to increase the annual number of homes built across Basingstoke and Deane from 748 to 853 at a meeting on January 27.

The increase in new homes built each year came after Government planning inspector Mike Fox, who will decide if the planning blueprint is adopted, expressed concern over the annual figure claiming that the borough would need to provide more homes because of an upturn in the economic market.

Work is currently being undertaken by officers at the borough council to see which planned developments could take the additional homes over the 15 year period.

Councillors on the Manydown overview committee were asked to consider three options to increase the number of homes built on the development and make recommendations to the Manydown executive committee, at a meeting last Monday.

The three options are:

• Increase the density of the planned neighbourhood areas to accommodate an extra 150 homes across 10 years

• Provide an additional 350 homes over 10 years by fully developing a plot of Manydown bordering Pack Lane and Buckskin, subject to improvements to the Fiveways junction

• Provide an additional 250 homes during the last five years of the plan period by extending a plot of Manydown bordering Pack Lane and Buckskin, subject to improvements to the Fiveways junction.

Although support was shown to increase the density of the planned neighbourhood areas to accommodate an extra 150 homes across 10 years, councillors raised concerns with the second and third options because of increased pressure on the Fiveways junction on Pack Lane.

Chairman of the overview committee, Councillor Paula Baker, told a meeting of the Manydown executive committee on Friday that the overview committee had issues with traffic at the Fiveways junction and the Pack Lane railway bridge, but said it “shouldn’t stop us doing what we can to make additional land available for the council in this Local Plan period”.

Cabinet member for property, finance and commissioning, Cllr John Izett, has confirmed that detailed technical studies will be undertaken by the borough council on all three options.

At the meeting on Friday, Cllr Izett, said: “I am very conscious of the concerns residents may have about the impact of additional housing, particularly on roads, and therefore any decision to increase the number of housing on these parts of Manydown is very much dependent on the outcomes of technical studies which are going to be taken.”