Councillors of Andover Town Council (ATC) have voted in favour of engaging fully with Test Valley Borough Council (TVBC) with regards to a ‘controversial’ design statement after spending over £10,000 on it. 

Andover Town Council’s Planning Committee produced a design statement covering Andover’s Conservation Area, which was put out for public consultation in January. However, following concerns being raised by Test Valley Borough Council, the planning authority, councillors were faced with a decision whether to scrap the scheme or try and save it. 

The council had asked two officers to take a look at the report and assess what steps can be taken to ‘salvage’ the project. The three options that the officers came up with were to scrap the plan; continue with the existing consultants; and engage with TVBC to incorporate the current document into the larger Andover Conservation Area. 

After a debate, the ATC has now decided to go for the third option. 

Speaking at the meeting, Cllr Luigi Gregori said: “I entirely agree with the general fuss of the report and the recommendations for the work that's been done to put it together. 

“And I looked at various options [for the future of the project]. The first one was doing nothing, which is not acceptable. 

“The second one is to progress using the existing consultants and developing it into a wide design statement, with responses from TVBC and the public. I think, especially with the TVBC responses, that would just take too much time, effort and money. 

“The third option is to incorporate the current document into the larger Andover Conservation Area. The one issue I have always had with this particular piece of work is that the end of the day TVBC is the planning authority. If you want to have any tax, we need to work with them together. 

“That’s why I recommend this to my colleagues. We should go for option three, that is, we actually look at working with the TVBC.” 

Supporting Cllr Gregori’s suggestion, Cllr Robin Hughes said: “I give my support to everything Cllr Gregori has mentioned. 

“Quite rightly we can't do, just do nothing, because we are where we are. 

“One of the disadvantages with option three is that to continue the work, there would be a lot more work to do. I think we probably have to go out to tender again, because the additional costs could be as much again with this company as they were the first time.  

“But I'm not saying what the company has done is wrong. I think they've responded to the brief that they were given, and by the leadership and the strong sense of direction they were given”. 

He continued: “So I think, option three, is basically the best option we're left with. It's not going to cost us all money. It doesn't throw out completely the document. We don't lose anything. From some of the conversations we actually have had with TVBC councillors and officers, they did quite like some of the suggestions that were being made because it would support some of their own thinking, to some degree, later on in the process. So I'm happy also to support option three.” 

Cllr Richard Rowles said it was a real shame that TVBC wasn't involved in the first instance. 

“In fact, we did have several meetings with officers from Borough Council. The advice at the time was basically suggesting that we not do what we did. So it's rather unfortunate that certain councillors decided that they knew better. So, I will be supporting option three.” 

The council then voted in favour of proceeding with the third option.