A SPORTING site not being used to its ‘full potential’ could be used to expand a community car park.

The Holding Field site, off Ashford Hill Road, Kingsclere is subject to a planning application which seeks to remove the currently ‘neglected’ sporting facilities and use the space to expand the surrounding car park.

Kingsclere Parish Council have submitted the application to Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council in a bid to provide more parking in the village and make use of an ‘unused’ site.

The application seeks to demolish the current all-weather cricket strip which is on the field and if permission to develop is granted it would see an increase to the car park by 40 per cent.

In the planning statement submitted to the borough council it reads: “The availability of off-road car parking within the village centre is very limited resulting in more vehicles being parked, sometimes illegally, on the narrow streets in and around the village centre.

“The Holding Field car park is situated very near to Kingsclere Primary School and as such is used by parents at school pick up and drop off times.”

The statement continues: “The cricket club now meet at the Fieldgate Centre.

“The best course of action is to remove the strip and restore the land to grass.”

In the application the parish council also said if development is approved it would place a container on the car park site to store emergency equipment for the parish.

The parish council said the development would “bring considerable value to the local community and be a visible improvement to a central amenity.”

For more information or to comment on the plans visit planning.basingstoke.gov.uk and search reference 19/00677/FUL.