Mike Jackson House
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Ex-soldiers campaign to stop new development
By Pete CastleSeptember 26, 2011
VETERANS living at a home for ex-servicemen in Aldershot are opposing plans to turn their backyard into a building site for a mini housing estate.
The occupants of Mike Jackson House, in North Lane, Aldershot, have signed a petition against the proposed development at Sheeling Close, the cul-de-sac created when the sheltered housing development was opened in 2008.
Developers have submitted an application to Rushmoor Borough Council to create a new development of 21 homes, including 12 terraced houses and a three-storey building containing nine flats.
But ex-soldiers at Mike Jackson House have objected to the plans, with 24 people signing a petition calling on the council to refuse planning permission.
The signatories say the development would cause a loss of privacy to the occupants of Mike Jackson House, and that disturbance from the construction work would exacerbate ‘severe mental health problems’ experienced by many of the military veterans living there.
The complaints were outlined to members of the council's planning committee at a meeting on Wednesday last week.
The applicant, Baylight Property Services, wants to build two four-bedroom houses, six three-bedroom houses and four two-bedroom houses, as well as the block of flats containing six two-bedroom flats and three one-bedroom flats.
The site would consist of three buildings – a three-storey apartment block, and two rows of terraces, all backing onto North Lane.
Architects for the development, Sergison Bates, said the estate had been planned to provide a continuous street frontage on to North Lane, with beech hedges providing some privacy for the occupants of the houses in their back gardens.
The development, which is on the site of Aldershot’s old DVLA driving test centre site, would include parking spaces for 41 cars.
It is close to the brick railway bridge over North Lane that is frequently the site of lorries hitting the bridge and getting stuck.
The latest application follows previous bids to build on the site that were turned down, with planners citing a lack of open space and a design that was out of character with the surroundings in previous cases, and a similar application being withdrawn by the applicants in 2008.
The site was granted outline planning permission for 19 homes – consisting of seven houses and 12 flats – in 2005, but the current proposals are for a slightly larger development.
Mike Jackson House, opened by former head of the army General Sir Mike Jackson in 2008, provides 25 rooms for former servicemen.
Many have mental health issues, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The plans are likely to be delayed while conservation issues surrounding larger scale developments are ironed out.
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