THE vision of what Basingstoke and Deane will look like in 30 years has been set out by residents.

At the meeting on February 28, members of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council opted to adopt the Horizon 2050 vision.

The vision sets out what residents what to see across the borough for decades to come.

Leader of the borough council, Councillor Clive Sanders said that it was the administration’s forebears who set out infrastructure such as the Ring Road, The Malls shopping centre, Basing View, the Leisure Park and latterly the Anvil and Festival Place.

He said: “It is appropriate that now we too should be turning our minds to the future and the sort of place we want to leave as a legacy for our children and our children’s children and taking the appropriate long-term decisions.

“The starting point for those considerations has to be the wishes of our residents as a whole.

“It would be the height of arrogance for us as a council to assume we know best and to seek to impose a solution for personal or political or any other reasons.”

He added: “Horizon 2050 sets out to capture the desires of our residents for the type of place they want the borough to be in 30 years’ time.”

Opposition members were wary of the vision becoming a political policy.

Leader of the Basingstoke Labour Party, Cllr Paul Harvey, said: “We have to bring the people along on this journey with us. There needs to be genuine stewardship as this is the will of our residents.”

South Ham ward member, Cllr Colin Regan added: “We cannot predict what will happen in the future, so this may all change a few years down the line.”

The vision was adopted by the borough council and will now be presented to the Basingstoke Area Strategic Partnership.