"Sometimes you have to stand up and be counted, and see that this is what the public of Basingstoke want."

They are the words of the borough councillor who led the refusal of planning applications on the Camrose ground.

Cllr Nick Robinson, a Conservative councillor who serves the ward of Bramley and Sherfield, was the first to raise concerns over the Basron proposal for flats and a care home on the historic football ground.

He said that whilst applications like these can be "emotive", members on the committee had to judge them solely on their planning merits.

"The most important thing with anything like this is that any reason for refusal has to be justifiable in planning law," Cllr Robinson told The Gazette.

The committee unanimously decided to reject the planning applications for three reasons - that the loss of the facilities were not being replaced suitably, that the site was being overdeveloped and that the mitigation was not suitable.

On all three points, the committee had to decide whether it outweighed the benefits of the scheme, which planning manager Mike Townsend said included brownfield site redevelopment and providing sites in the council's five year supply of land.

Particularly, local planning policy CN8 was debated, which states that "replacement facilities must be equivalent or better in terms of quality, quantity and location".

"I don't think the application met the policy. There is no space for extra pitches at Winklebury and no time on the pitch."

He said what was being offered in the way of mitigation was "slightly upgrading" the Hampshire FA headquarters at Winklebury, but losing the other pitches and only receiving financial contributions towards them.

"You can't play football on a contribution. There was no concrete plan."

Meanwhile, Cllr Paul Harvey, who supported Cllr Robinson in refusing the first application and proposed refusal for the second, said that he felt confident that the decision would hold up should Basron appeal it.

The deputy leader of the Basingstoke and Deane Independents, labelled Wednesday's meeting as the "most important for a long time" in the borough and said: "I didn't feel that in reading the officer's report and with the evidence that was presented, that the mitigation that was proposed was compliant with the council's policies, nor Sport England's or the FA's advice.

"It was clear that we would go from two stadiums to one stadium. There was the potential for stadiums to be pulled up and that the football club would not get an equivalent."

Talking about how the town moves forward from here, which he says is a separate discussion to the decision for planning refusal, it must start by Basron respecting the decision.

"All we can hope is that the applicant respects the decision of planning committee, respects the sense of feeling there is in Basingstoke as clear from the expression of support that the football club has had and the support for the Camrose.

"The pressure is on the developer, the owners and the council to sort out the situation.

"The town couldn't be any clearer in how it feels. It came to the conclusion on the information it had."