PLANS for a retirement village in a former office block in Andover have been submitted to the borough council.

Churchill Retirement Living hopes to open a 69-apartment retirement complex at Alan Child House, Borden Gates site, which would also feature communal facilities and car parking.

In its supporting documents, the applicant wrote: “This planning application will go a long way to providing housing for older people to address the ‘critical’ need and will help support the delivery of housing locally.”

The site would feature 47 one-bedroom and 22 two-bedroom apartments.

In a scoping consultation in March, ahead of the application being submitted, Andover Town Council was asked to submit its comments.

The site was previously occupied by Simplyhealth, who have made the decision to consolidate their three Andover offices into two offices - Hambleden House and Anton House.

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At a meeting of the town council's planning committee, Cllr Christopher Ecclestone raised concerns that the conversion would see “office jobs disappearing once again”.

The plans features 23 car parking spaces, however, parking was also a significant concern to committee members, with Cllr Nigel Long saying: “Because it’s right next to ASDA and because it’s [close to] the town centre, they don’t have to provide any parking at all!

“I am concerned, with this number of flats, that there should be parking for every one.”

Cllr Ecclestone added: “A lot of these people are active retirees, it’s not an old people’s home. These people will want cars and want to move about. People want to remain mobile, and public transport on the weekend is diabolical!”

Concerns were also raised by Hampshire Police’s Designing Out Crime officer.

In a letter, they wrote: “A public footpath following the river runs along the eastern boundary of the development. To the north of the development a pathway is shown which appears to link the river walk with the area to the rear of Bridge Street. It appears that this pathway will allow the public to use the site to transit between these two places, this compromises the security of the site. Access to and from the river walk from the site must be controlled.

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“A gate should be fitted within the boundary treatment, the gate must be fitted with a locking mechanism that provides for authorised access only.”

The application will now be considered by Test Valley Borough Council.

To read the full plans, visit view-applications.testvalley.gov.uk/online-applications and use reference 22/01188/FULLN.

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