AS East Hampshire planners prepare to consider the reserve matters application to enable the building of 243 new homes on land at Borovere Farm, east of the Selborne Road in Alton, residents are adamant that there should be no vehicle access to the site from Borovere Lane.

Outline permission was granted in July 2015 to develop the 17-acre greenfield site as part of the controversial hybrid South Alton Plan which will see 523 new homes built across two sites - at Borovere Farm and on 28 acres on the former Lord Mayor Treloar Hospital site (280 homes) on Chawton Park Road.

This part of the application, submitted by agents WYG on behalf of Harvington Properties and Miller Homes, will confirm the construction of roadworks associated with both sites.

It includes a new roundabout on the A339/B3006 Selborne Road to provide access to the Borovere site; construction of a new road across the Chawton triangle to form new access to Winchester Road, which will then be closed at its eastern end; a new roundabout to replace the existing one at Butts Bridge; a new access into the former Lord Mayor Treloar site from Chawton Park road; works within the highway in Northfield Lane; the installation of a new pedestrian crossing at Whitedown Lane to provide access to the new “country park” on the Lord Mayor Treloar butterfly meadow; and the demolition and replacement of the Victorian bridge at The Butts, with associated roadworks.

While Alton Town Council’s planning and transportation committee has registered no objection, councillors said that since the roads on the Borovere farm site are not to be adopted, it should be incumbent on the developer to install grit bins across the hillside to ensure the safety of residents and visitors in the event of icy weather.

Residents, however, have expressed strong objection to any vehicular access from the top of the site via Borovere Lane, even for emergency vehicles and certainly for contractor traffic which they feel should have access from the Selborne Road only.

One objector pointed out that, having lived on Borovere Lane for the last 35 years, he had witnessed “a massive increase to the volume, speed and size of vehicles using the lane”, especially since the business units have been occupied.

While some are keen to advocate pedestrian and cyclist access onto Borovere Lane, to provide a safer route into town for new residents rather than having to walk along the busy Selborne and Butts roads, others are concerned about the use of the top end of Borovere Lane, which is largely used by farm traffic and vehicles accessing the business units on the farm site.

While the Alton Society has welcomed “the scaling back of some of the more obtrusive building along the northern edge of the site” and the “limiting of the height of these buildings to two storeys”, plus the better spread of visitor parking throughout the site, its members believe that the scheme is still “populated with densely-packed buildings, spreading rather uniformly throughout the site, and appearing to show little respect for its location”.

This, they argue, is contrary to Alton’s Neighbourhood Plan which demands that housing development should “respect the character of the town and surrounding countryside” and East Hampshire District Council’s (EHDC) joint core strategy which stipulates that any housing development “must protect and enhance local distinctiveness and sense of place” and, the Society says, “these proposals fail to do that”.

In a statement, the Society said: “There is no sense of place, or distinctiveness, no focal points or discernible features, and the house designs are devoid of any meaningful variation.

“What we see from Miller Homes is more off-the-shelf potato-stamp designs, with nothing that marks them out as respecting the town and its surrounding countryside.”

Furthermore, the Society believes the single ‘spine’ access road to be “extremely vulnerable”, not just in terms of traffic volume serving such a large estate but from blockage in the event of emergencies, especially given the smaller roads leading to cul-de-sacs.

Furthermore, the Society criticises “the deplorable decision to limit the number of affordable homes to 20 per cent” and the fact that only 14 per cent of the dwellings are flats, which completely ignores Alton’s critical need for small one and two-bed units.

The Society is critical also of the provision of open space with very little serving the southern edge of the site and, despite a scaling back in height of the tall buildings, at the top of the hill on the northern edge, it has registered a repeated request for the location of the buildings to be switched with the designated open space, to afford more protection to the distant views into the site.

Disappointed too over the lack of energy infrastructure, Society members also stress the importance of adhering to the S106 contribution of £5m to fund the additional primary and secondary school places deemed necessary as a result of the entire South Alton Plan development.

“We regard it as absolutely crucial that these demands are satisfied if this application is to proceed.”