HUNDREDS of additional new properties are to be built on an Andover housing development after a controversial planning application was approved.

At a recent borough planning meeting council bosses agreed to 350 new homes at Augusta Park in addition to the 2,500 already under construction, despite deferring the meeting because of traffic concerns.

As previously reported by the Andover Advertiser, the original meeting was to be held in January but a decision was delayed following the intervention of Alamein ward councillor Phil North.

The land was initially earmarked as the site for a new secondary school when plans for Augusta Park were agreed in 2006.

Five years later, Hampshire County Council decided a school was no longer required in the area and developer Taylor Wimpey was given the option of developing the land with additional dwellings.

Cllr North raised concerns after traffic figures showed a potential increase of 300 extra vehicles impacting on the Smannell Road, Enham and Finkley Arches areas during peak times if 350 houses are built rather than a secondary school.

Despite airing those concerns at the meeting last week, councillors voted to allow the application.

Cllr North said: “It is very disappointing that the county council turned down the opportunity to build a secondary school. Improving secondary education in our town is one of the key challenges for Andover and a purpose-built school could have been at least part of the solution.”

Commenting on the outcome of the committee last week, he added: “The arguments were finely balanced but I made the case for refusal based on the additional traffic this extra development would create, which in my opinion wasn’t mitigated by the highways improvements put forward by the developer.”