AN APPEAL to allow a huge development has been pulled, to the delight of campaigners.

An appeal over the rejection of a planning application by Wilbur Developments to build 700 homes between Hook and Newnham on land called Owens Farm, in Newnham Road, has been dropped.

The appeal was withdrawn on Friday last week after the application had been knocked back by Hart District Council.

The plan for 700 homes, including sites for a primary school, nursery and retail and community areas were first defeated in early 2018 after an enormous amount of community pushback, with over 1,100 objections from the area’s residents being lodged.

The developers had appealed, but withdrew their bid on the day the appeal hearing was due to take place.

One of the founders of Hook Action Against Overdevelopment, Harry Hayden, said: “It was unbelievable when we heard about it on the Friday.

“We still felt like we had to go to the inquiry, and when they delayed the start, we thought it might just be a matter of procedure, nobody was expecting them to do that.

“While none of us in the various action groups are against development, what we do object to is the idea of the development connecting Hook and Newnham by building on the greenfield land, and over an ancient path.

“The goalposts kept moving during the process to shoehorn in an unwanted development on greenfield land, which could have been to confuse people.

“We originally had hundreds of people on board against the development, but when the application changed, we had to get everybody to object again.”

The news of the appeal withdrawal was met with approval from the action groups, which were originally due to hold a protest picnic against the plan, but instead the protest turned to celebration as around 40 people met up on Jubilee Green on Sunday.

Harry added: “It was originally organised by one person, but more and more people turned up to support.

“There is a lot at stake here for the developers, and so I’m sure we’ve won a battle but not the war.

“With the formation of the Hart Local Plan, that should protect us from a development like this for a number of years.”

Wilbur Developments was contacted for comment.