Work on the next zone of the 3,850-home Wellesley project is expected to start in September after the development manager signed the latest contract with a builder.
Although Grainger chiefs remain tight-lipped over the name of the new developer, they have told Get Hampshire that work is pressing ahead at the former Army garrison , including the revamp of the towpath and school site.
Trees will begin to be cleared this week to make way for the controversially-named David Kirk Academy, and the path, running from Ash Lock to Eelmoor Bridge, will be widened and resurfaced using PH-neutral stones from Cornwall.
Grainger has found its next housebuilder, which will take on two phases including 270 of the 700 homes at Corunna – the second zone – with a planning application expected to be filed to Rushmoor Borough Council by the late summer.
Grainger will begin road works in April to ready the site for the housebuilder.
Sales have been encouraging, said development director John Beresford, and there are residents are already living in the first zone, Maida.
Mr Beresford also wants to reassure people that although the clearing works starting this week at the school site may look as though old trees are being removed, it is ‘nothing to worry about’.
“They are ancient trees but the problem is that it’s built on old barracks and it’s not ideal to put a school on,” he said.
“The trees need to come out and we need to clear the land and rubble, and then we are putting better trees back in.
"The trees around there currently look a bit mangey.
“The roots couldn’t get through the rubble underneath.
“It was a shame to think that we have had to chop them down, but they are going back in and in 50 years they will be better looking than they were.”
The planning application for the Cambridge Military Hospital, which will be transformed from its dilapidated state into one of four options, including housing and community use, is due to go before Rushmoor’s development control committee in March.
