HALF-a-million-pounds of taxpayers’ money has been swallowed up by the cost of planning appeals over some of the borough’s biggest developments, council chiefs have revealed.

A report to Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s ruling Cabinet shows that four public inquiry appeals – Marnel Park for 450 homes, Kennel Farm for 310 homes, Razors Farm for 425 homes and Worting Farm for 70 homes – have been held and the applications allowed since 2013.

In addition, appeals relating to 120 new homes at Overton Hill, Overton, 34 homes in Bloswood Lane, Whitchurch and the Bullington Cross wind farm, are currently under way.

The report says that in 2013/14 the borough council incurred costs of £200,000 in relation to the Marnel Park, Kennel Farm and Razors Farm applications and a further £302,000 for 2014/15 is set to be spent on the Bullington Cross, Worting Farm, Overton Hill, Bloswood Lane and the Razors Farm applications.

When refusing the applications for Marnel Park, Kennel Farm, Razors Farm and the Overton Hill developments the borough council argued that the applications were premature and came before the adoption of the borough’s Local Plan.

However, all of these sites have been allocated for development between now and 2029 in the draft Local Plan.

The leader of the borough council, Councillor Clive Sanders, told The Gazette that the council could not justify the cost of the appeals to taxpayers and said that councillors had a briefing in December to explain the current situation and the risk of further appeals.

Cllr Sanders said reasons such as prematurity did not hold any weight at planning appeals and councillors had to realise there was a financial consequence of giving this as a reason for refusing planning applications.

He added: “There is an underlying problem we have which is we have had a number of applications come in which have been rejected by the committee and are then going to appeal and being granted.

“We (the Cabinet) have to realise what the rules of the game have become.”

At the briefing councillors were told to consider applications positively, seek the best developments and improve communications between councillors and officers in a bid to reduce the number of future planning appeals.