4:50pm Thursday 11th March 2010
By David Connop Price
IDEAS for developing land near Basingstoke railway station have gone on display to the public.
Dozens of South View residents visited the Vyne Community School to find out what may happen to Vyne Meadow car park and the former South View allotments.
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, which owns the land, was asking residents for their opinions.
Options for the two-acre car park are to leave it as it is, build houses on it or build a mix of houses and a four-deck car park. The 3.7-acre allotments could be left as they are, turned into a park, given over to housing or used for a mix of homes and a park.
After viewing the ideas, Sherborne Road residents Bryan and Carole McCarthy, 64 and 62 respectively, said they were torn between a park and a mixed option for the allotments.
They wanted to know what Network Rail, Sentinel Housing Association and Manoir Estates were going to propose on neighbouring plots of land, which Basingstoke’s blueprint for development allocates for housing.
Mr McCarthy said: “Knowing what someone else is doing will affect my opinion.”
But Councillor James Lewin, Cabinet member for finance and property, said all the areas combined had been earmarked for 300 homes, but the maximum number on the council land would be about 70.
Cllr Lewin said other potential developers could not be forced to the table, but added: “If the council takes a lead in terms of style and character of the neighbourhood, then subsequent applications for neighbouring land will have to be influenced accordingly.”
Norden ward councillor George Hood was collecting signatures on a petition calling for the car park to remain as it is and for the allotments to be turned into a park.
Cllr Hood and his fellow ward councillors have held a meeting with residents and he said they had proposed creating an action group to draw up an urban design statement to influence development in the area.
More information on the council’s options for South View can be found at basingstoke.gov.uk. Consultation responses need to be returned by March 24.
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