ANDOVER needs a business park and not a megashed was the underlying message at the latest public meeting held by the Stop the Megashed Campaign group.
The latest in a series of events trying to convince Test Valley Borough Councillors to refuse a planning application for a Tesco distribution centre on the former Andover Airfield site was staged on Thursday.
The campaign group has many objections to the application including the lack of high quality jobs it would bring to the town and the fact that they believe it's too big for the area.
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A major issue at the meeting was a feared increase in traffic on the A303.
"The A303 was never intended and never designed to carry the sort of volume that's being proposed," said Lord David Howell, who was involved with the original design of the road.
A date has not been fixed for the formal planning meeting to decide on the application.
It has been postponed due to outstanding objections from Hampshire County Council which the developer has not yet addressed.
Members of the campaign told the several hundred residents present at John Hanson Community School they can still object.
"We have the power to empower our councillors to turn this away," said campaign chairman Rhonda Smith.
Posted by: Miss Monxton, Abbotts Ann on 11:34am Fri 15 Feb 08
Another Business Park! How about using the empty warehouses on Portway or Walworth Industrial Estates? Or Sarum Business Park which ripped a hole in the landscape and eco system? What if the empty Industrail Estates were used as brown fill sites for housing, with the businesses left moving to one industrial estate or Amesbury? I don't think another empty business park would do this area any more good than the mega shed, there would still be a problem with the A303, which was only built to take the cruise missiles from Greenham Common not the amount of lorries proposed.
Another Business Park! How about using the empty warehouses on Portway or Walworth Industrial Estates? Or Sarum Business Park which ripped a hole in the landscape and eco system? What if the empty Industrail Estates were used as brown fill sites for housing, with the businesses left moving to one industrial estate or Amesbury? I don't think another empty business park would do this area any more good than the mega shed, there would still be a problem with the A303, which was only built to take the cruise missiles from Greenham Common not the amount of lorries proposed.
Posted by: Peter Parfrey, Monxton on 4:01pm Fri 15 Feb 08
A Business Park was what was agreed in the Local Plan, after considerable local debate, and a small amount of warehouse provision was added at the last minute.
Portway and Walworth Industrial Estates are old and unattractive to new business, and merely changing their names only reinforces the case for sticking to the (legally enforcible), Local Plan.
The current application is a huge distortion of what was democratically agreed,and a terrible waste of space. If successful it would see the end of Andovers hopes for modern aspirational employment on the last big development site available in the area.
The developers themselves admit that a mixed office development as outlined in their glossy flyer is most unlikely to happen, Andover will get more huge transport depots, as has happened in other similar developments around the country, providing low density, low wage employment, for relatively few local people.
A Business Park was what was agreed in the Local Plan, after considerable local debate, and a small amount of warehouse provision was added at the last minute.
Portway and Walworth Industrial Estates are old and unattractive to new business, and merely changing their names only reinforces the case for sticking to the (legally enforcible), Local Plan.
The current application is a huge distortion of what was democratically agreed,and a terrible waste of space. If successful it would see the end of Andovers hopes for modern aspirational employment on the last big development site available in the area.
The developers themselves admit that a mixed office development as outlined in their glossy flyer is most unlikely to happen, Andover will get more huge transport depots, as has happened in other similar developments around the country, providing low density, low wage employment, for relatively few local people.
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