IN WHAT has been hailed as a ‘resounding success for residents’, the decision around an application for housing development in Odiham has been refused.

On Monday, 30 July, Hart District Council planners posted a decision of refusal for an application of housing development in Odiham’s historic Deer Park.

A campaign by SPAG (Save the Park Action Group) began early in 2015, soon after landowner Richard Revell of Dogmersfield and his agent had first sought to persuade members of Odiham Parish Council (OPC) into supporting a bid to build luxury homes in the Conservation Area that separates Odiham and North Warnborough.

The application was for the change of use of agricultural land to public and private open spaces with associated new footpath/cycleway; revised vehicular access off Dunleys Hill with adjoining new footpath/cycleway; fencing, tree planting and landscaping to the public and private open spaces.

There would also have been the construction of seven dwellings with driveways and residential curtilages.

The council received almost 380 objections to the proposal, and only one letter of support.

Also crucial to the refusal has been the Parish Neighbourhood Plan, driven by the ‘Onwardplan’ voluntary team and submitted by a conflicted Parish Council for adoption by Hart in June 2017. Its policies are frequently quoted within the report, alongside those of the Local Plan and the governing NPPF (National Planning Policy Framework) as contributing to the refusal decision.

Relations between the parish council and the community came to a head with an independent Parish Poll called in May, asking if the electorate had lost confidence in those councillors who had not upheld the policies of the Neighbourhood Plan concerning the Deer Park proposals. 1,153 residents went to the polling stations, where a 62 per cent majority voted ‘Yes’.

Hugh Sheppard, a member of the SPAG team, said: “Hart’s decision has at last brought heritage, planning law and common sense together on the Deer Park. I feel that this has repaid the determination of the parish residents, while hoping that Odiham Parish Council will be similarly appreciative.”

Further information can be found about the application on the Hart District Council website planning application area with the code 17/03029/FUL.