The proposed mega depot at Pyestock could spell bad news for Yateley, councillors have warned.

Yateley Town planning and licensing councillors fear that if the massive warehouse and distribution centre between Fleet and Farnborough is approved, lorries will spill on to Yateley roads.

Councillors vowed to do everything in their power to stop the 24-hour centre from going ahead and they will make their views known to Hart District Council.

Town councillor Bob Harward said: “The scale of Pyestock is inappropriate. It will have a huge impact on all neighbouring parishes.

“We all know that the road network is saturated already and this will cause an increase.

“It would gridlock everything and there will be hordes of lorries travelling through Yateley.”

He said he regularly has problems leaving his Reading Road home because traffic heading for the M3 is at a standstill.

Allowing Pyestock to go ahead would worsen an already saturated network.

“It the sheer scale of Pyestock, and it’s a 24-hour operation,” said Cllr Harward. “Lorries will find rat runs everywhere, including Yateley.

“If we are serious about global warming, this should not go ahead. It will only worsen the situation.

“We should do what is best for the environment.”

Councillors reaffirmed their support of the finance committee’s decision to give  £500 to the non-political pressure group
SPLAT (Stop Pyestock bLot Act Today) which is fighting the plans at a public inquiry that begins next month.

Joint developers Prupim and Astral counter that the depot would clean up what is a contaminated and derelict site and provide jobs.

They say there is a real need for a new centre serving the south-east.

Hart District Council refused planning permission in March and there have been 12,000 letters of objection from people who say it will ruin the area.

The inquiry begins on Tuesday November 25.

Roger Newman, a newly co-opted Yateley Town councillor for Frogmore and Darby Green, said Hart could impose conditions of rail use to move goods.

Town councillor Don Benham said local roads could not cope.

He agreed that the railway was a more sophisticated way of distributing goods.

Yateley Town Mayor Cllr John Keane had noted an increase in lorry movements through Yateley this year, particularly in Hall Lane, and did not want the situation to intensify.

He did, however, recognise the need for a depot in the south-east, but believes the proposed location is inappropriate.

Town councillor Gill Hennell said: “The lorries will come straight over from Fleet and down Cricket Hill Lane and then they will be free to travel through Yateley.”

Councillors said Reading Road would also be a favoured route of industrial HGVs. The planning committee will forward an official objection, together with their reasons.