Hart District Council has earmarked the money to make sure it has the best possible defence at a public inquiry into the ‘mega-depot’ scheme for the Pyestock site.

The plans were refused by the council’s planning committee at a packed meeting in Aldershot’s Princes Hall in March, but joint developers Prupim and Astral have appealed against the decision.

The issue will now be thrashed out before a government inspector during a forthcoming public inquiry.

Councillors backed the call for the funding at Thursday’s full council meeting.

Hart’s new cabinet member for planning, Conservative Richard Appleton, said he was disappointed that the previous post holder, Community Campaign Hart leader James Radley, abstained during the vote.

Cllr Appleton said: “I was pleased that there was an overwhelming majority to allocate the money to fight the Pyestock appeal but disappointed that not all CCH members thought they could give it their backing.”

However, Cllr Radley hit back.He told the Mail: “The vote was almost unanimous so it was going to get carried anyway, which was the right decision.

“However, I thought about this carefully and remembered that the Conservatives had criticised us in their election leaflets of draining resources when we had given more to them than they had ever done.

“It was quite hypocritical of them to accuse us of draining resources when we hadn’t.

“I was delighted to support the Pyestock appeal and was happy it went through but I decided to make my own personal statement that the Conservatives are being absolutely reckless with their spending – not on Pyestock but on other items.

“They’ve decided to spend £10,000 on Odiham Tennis Club and have brought back the free red bays in the Fleet town centre car parks, which is a good thing, but they haven’t identified the savings to pay for it, which to me is reckless.”

Cllr Appleton said it was vital that the council funds the best possible defence at the forthcoming inquiry.

In a previous report to cabinet, he said Prupim and Astral are understood to have instructed senior leading counsel and the council needed to be similarly represented.

Cllr Appleton said that fee proposals have been sought from leading counsel, supported by junior counsel and a number of planning, transport, air quality and noise consultants.

Appropriate sums have been included for other items including venue hire.

There would also be various internal costs, particularly from staff who would need to service the consultant team.

Cllr Appleton said an alternative option to employ less senior counsel to act on the council’s behalf would be less expensive than leading counsel a

Chris Perkins, director of fund management at Prupim, said there remains a very strong planning case for the proposal.

He said there is a strong need for distribution facilities within the south east, where the country’s largest consumer market is located.

Mr Perkins added: “The proposals will clean up this contaminated site and bring it back into more productive use."