THE reserved matters application for a replacement sports centre for Alton is on the agenda for East Hampshire District Council’s (EHDC) planning meeting next week.

Brought by Sports and Leisure Management Limited (Everyone Active) on behalf of EHDC), the application follows the granting of outline permission last September for the demolition of the existing sports centre building and the removal of the synthetic sports pitches and the construction of a replacement facility comprising a sports/leisure centre, synthetic turf pitches, additional car parking, and revisions to the access arrangements at the site.

The reserved matters application relates to access, appearance, landscaping, layout and scale.

The mix of internal facilities was decided when the contract was signed between EHDC and Everyone Active last March.

The application has attracted 172 online letters of objection from the public whose concerns range from lack of a sport climbing wall, loss of two squash courts, inadequate pool facilities and not enough fitness studio space to the adverse impact on Cardiac Rehab and too much emphasis on leisure at the expense of sport.

The proposed centre will not, objectors say, comply with local or national planning policy regarding replacement sporting facilities.

Chawton Parish Council has voiced concerns over non-vehicular access, while Alton Town Council has raised objections which include the scale of the proposed facility which councillors say is “not big enough to be future proof”, plus there is concern in respect of access, manoeuvring and vehicle routing for construction traffic and fears that there will be HGVs parking and queuing on Chawton Park Road.

Other concerns include historic flooding, car parking, the closeness of the proposed building to Cardiac Rehab, and light spillage from the site.

Sport England has withdrawn some of its objection over the layout of the sports hall and phasing plans following further information provided by the applicant and has welcomed the ongoing work to address concerns regarding specification for the replacement 3G artificial turf pitches.

But it remains concerned about the impact on clubs and community groups resulting from the reduction in squash court provision and the loss of the indoor climbing wall, and considers that further work is needed to support any displaced clubs or groups, to facilitate access to suitable alternative arrangements elsewhere, and recognising that the proposed new centre will not, in some cases, be providing like-for-like facilities.

In the meantime, Alton and District Sport Council chairman Joe Walters is continuing to lobby the national governing bodies (of individual sports) and Sport England not to withhdraw or water down their objections but “to support the fight to get Alton a decent and larger sports centre rather than using public money to fund a private company to build and run a leisure centre”.

In flagging up what he believes to be EHDC’s “attempt to decentralise sport from its rightful home (in sports centres) to the vagaries of local halls, which may mean extra travel time”, he said: “We have to believe that Sport England will defend the grassroots of sport, as they are mandated to do, so that we and future generations will be not be doomed to nail bars, saunas, jacuzzis and the like at the expense of our sporting facilities.”

The public planning meeting is at Penns Place, Petersfield, next Thursday, February 1, at 6pm.