A town council has pledged hundreds of pounds to help fight plans for a massive warehouse between Fleet and Farnborough.

Blackwater and Hawley Town Council has agreed to give £500 towards the fighting fund set up by campaigners opposing the mega-depot plan for Pyestock.

The money will go towards helping the pressure group SPLAT (Stop Pyestock bLot Act Today) put the best possible case at a major public inquiry later this year.

The controversial scheme was unanimously thrown out by Hart District Council’s planning committee during a packed meeting at Aldershot’s Princes Hall in March.

But joint Pyestock developers Prupim and Astral have appealed and the development bid will be thrashed out before a government-appointed planning inspector during a four-week public inquiry starting on November 25. So far SPLAT has collected more than £14,000 from concerned residents.

Now Blackwater and Hawley Town Council has boosted the fighting fund.

Council chairman Cllr Adrian Collett said it agreed to give SPLAT £500 at its latest full council meeting held in Ancells Farm Community Centre.

“SPLAT wrote to us a few weeks ago and two of its members came along to our meeting to talk about the issues involved,” said Cllr Collett.

“Pyestock is actually within the Blackwater and Hawley Town Council boundary and we are as strongly opposed to this as everyone else.

“We believe that SPLAT will present an excellent case at the appeal and so decided to make a contribution of £500 towards their costs.”

Cllr Collett believes Blackwater and Hawley Town Council is the first council to help fund SPLAT’s case at the appeal.

He added: “I’m hoping that by doing so it will push other town and parish councils into doing the same.

“There’s no doubt that the joint developers promoting the Pyestock scheme will have the most expensive legal people in the country because they can afford it.

“We’ve therefore got to make sure that SPLAT are able to fight this as strongly as possible.

“Hart District Council will obviously have their own legal team but it’s important that third party groups like SPLAT are able to put forward the strongest case possible.

“This development is going to affect everyone in the community so it’s important that everyone, including local councils, organisations and businesses, donates anything they can to help fight it.”

SPLAT leader Bob Schofield is delighted with the Blackwater and Hawley Town Council donation.

He said: “We have written to all the parish and town councils in the district pointing out that each one will be affected by this.

“Traffic congestion will not be concentrated in just one corner of Hart — everyone will be affected. Obviously the A30 will be a prime target for vehicles accessing the Pyestock site from the north.

“Vehicles coming from the M4 will be coming through Hartley Wintney to get to the site while the A287 will also see an increase in traffic from vehicles coming from the M3.

“We know that 800 HGVs a day is not a realistic number.

“Fortunately Blackwater and Hawley Town Council appreciates the argument that there could be a total of up to 5,000 vehicles a day, including lorries and large vans.

“We will be representing the whole of Hart at the appeal and we believe the whole of the district will be affected by these proposals. We hope that other town and parish councils come in with donations because we can help them by all working together.”

SPLAT spokeswoman Shan Healey pointed out that the experts hired by Hart District Council and the developer are likely to lack local knowledge and will not appreciate the real concerns of the affected communities.

She said: “Acting within our Rule 6 status, SPLAT will ensure that accurate local knowledge and the concerns of our supporters are taken into account.

“At the inquiry we will challenge and question any information we believe to be erroneous, even that defined as ‘common ground’ in negotiations between Hart District Council and the developer.”

Mrs Healey said SPLAT needs a minimum of £25,000 to protect the community against traffic congestion, noise, air and light pollution, health risks, loss of amenity and ecological damage to areas of importance for conservation.

She added: “If you haven’t yet made a donation or wish to top up a previous one please do so as soon as possible. Together we can win.”

Prupim and Astral say there is a strong need for distribution facilities within the south-east, where the country’s largest consumer market is located.

They point out the proposal will clean up the contaminated site and bring it back into more productive use.