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An illustration of houses in the project. Picture - Grainger
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Exhibition of Aldershot urban extension plans

By Amy Taylor
January 31, 2013

A TWO-DAY public exhibition of the Aldershot Urban Extension plans will be held from tomorrow, February 1, as the 10-week public consultation continues.

The plans were submitted to Rushmoor Borough Council shortly before Christmas, and all 282 documents were validated in early January.

They are now available online and at the council offices in Farnborough, awaiting feedback from people in the town who want to have their say on the proposals.

The long-awaited scheme, known as project Wellesley, will take around 15 years to complete and will be done in phases to create a total of 3,850 new homes, of which 35% will be affordable housing schemes.

Phase One, due to start early next year, will be made up of 228 homes, and later phases will include the preservation of historic buildings such as Cambridge Military Hospital and Headquarters 4th Division, which would be brought back into use as homes and community centres.

The 150-hectare site will include two schools, a central park area and several open green spaces, and will fill the brownfield site running along the A325 Farnborough Road between the Basingstoke Canal to Knollys Road, and over as far as Ordnance Road and the railway line.

Grainger, the development partners working with Defence Infrastructure Organisation, who own the Wellesley site, have taking the plans forward.

Plans, artists’ impressions and documents relating to the site will be on display at Wellington Shopping Centre on February 1 from 11.30am until 5pm, and on February 2 from 10.30am until 3pm.

Comments on the plans must be received by Friday March 29.

For more on this story, see this week's News & Mail, out now.

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Most recent user comments 15 of 15

ganesh, PJA, From my questions when I visited on Friday, there is nothing on the plans for extra Surgery Capacity (at the moment) although Cllr. Alex Crawford has said "Developer contributions towards health will be sorted out as part of the process. I expect that people from the NHS and/or the Clinical Commissioning Groups are looking at the planning application, etc now." in another thread. But I doubt that this will include extra dental facilities as the developers say that they are private businesses. Aldershot has two Dentists in the town which provide NHS dental care, and I believe that both of them have waiting lists to take on new NHS patients.

Dawi, Aldershot

reply:- struggle to get a doctor appointment, struggle at a&e at frimley park hospital when thousands of homes are built here, and at other areas in the local area.

more late diagnoses of serious illnesses, more old people struggling to get much needed care, oh forgot we are allready struggling like this?, so thousands of more people won't make it worse then without another hospital in the area?.

PJA
11/02/2013 at 07:52

Caveman “They also intend for all students to go to Wavell as Connaught does not make it into the plan”

That was not what I was told by the developer’s representatives when I enquired about it when they were in the Wellington Centre.

According to them Secondary school pupils will go to Connaught, I was told that they and the council had been checking the routes.

Dawi, Aldershot
06/02/2013 at 09:38

From a quick study of the Transport Plan, they are looking at replacing Ash Lock bridge. They also indend for all students to go to Wavell as Connaught does not make it into the plan

Caveman
06/02/2013 at 08:21

Dawi, Aldershot
05/02/2013 at 18:16

my main concern is the health provision

i could see no doctors surgeries on the plan and the hospital hill complex is already stretched

my second concern is the extra traffic in the area

ganesh, aldershot
05/02/2013 at 12:45

its okay having the homes as long as all the services are their for all the people in the borough.

Which from what I have seen will not be the case!!

PJA
05/02/2013 at 09:26

You can see the application at the council offices or at Aldershot library. This is great, first Westgate and now some quality housing. At last Aldershot is getting some much needed attention. What else would be done with this fenced off, derelict, unwanted army land. Lets get it started as soon as possible.

Bryan T, Aldershot
03/02/2013 at 11:59

@ Dawi, Aldershot As I have been unable to visit the exhibition due to commitments elsewhere, thank you for the information it seems to be very much as I suspected, no joined up thinking and definitly not woken up and smelt the coffee. My fear is that they have not concidered the needs of public services and have not built in requirements that will allow for the extention of education and medical buildings. When this developement is finished there will be no more land to build on which will leave Rushmoor with crowded schools and overstretched medical services.

UKR
02/02/2013 at 13:08

I had a look at the exhibition while I was in town this morning. Not that much to see, but there was people on hand from the developers to speak to people.

A few interesting points I picked up from speaking to them:

1. There is going to be a “New” junction added to the Black Water Valley Relief Road (A331) down Government Road by Aldershot Car Spares/Chambers Waste/Dean Woods BUT it is going to be a “get on” junction only. Also from speaking to people from the developer it is unclear if anyone has taken in to consideration the narrow road bridge over the Basingstoke Canal by Ash Lock.

2. As there are times when the Polo Fields are used either as a car park and/or to host an event and there are changed traffic patterns around Allison Road/Queens Avenue, if any consideration had been given to the impact of access to the new estates that temporary changes to the traffic flow would have. It doesn’t seem that this has been thought about.

3. I also enquired about the lack of space for any business/corporate sites which could bring additional jobs in to the area especially as all of the former large office/commercial sites have already been converted to Housing. It seems that this isn’t a priority for the council, although there will be a small business area (which will include a County Council Depot) at the top of Government Road.

4. Both of the new schools will be primary schools, rather than one primary and one secondary, so Connaught will remain the only Secondary School in Aldershot and the plan is that children from the new development will attend there and have to travel to the far side of Aldershot and back each school day.

5. Dental Practices are considered as private businesses and are not included in any planning consideration, so if you are hoping for an extra NHS Dental Surgery in the area don’t hold your breath.

Dawi, Aldershot
01/02/2013 at 16:42

As Farnborough is a part of Rushmoor a large developement such as this wiil effect the residents of Farnborough so will we see the exhibition in the Meads shopping centre

UKR
01/02/2013 at 10:44

I agree with UKR, no the project itself isn't being rushed, but this exhibition is. It smacks of RBC trying to sneak it past a lot of people without them knowing about it (it's fair to assume that most locals don't read this website every day) but having it there long enough to claim there was a consultation when people inevitably complain.

BlisteringBarnacles! , Sheffield / Farnborough
01/02/2013 at 01:19

sleeping beauty “maybe even some companies looking for new corporate HQs”

The problem is that there isn’t anywhere in Aldershot for a “New Corporate HQ” to go. All of the old Major sites have already been turned in to housing (Gail and Polden, The old Aldershot Bus Station, The old Military Railway Station, The old Boots Warehouse Site, The old Bus Maintenance Depot, The old BT office Block by Lime Street, both of the Old Associated Exam Board office blocks in Station Road, the old depots in Pickford Street).

With the exception of a few shops and a couple of schools (according to the plans) the AUE will be housing. Where is the space to encourage a couple of Corporate Employers to Aldershot? As I’ve said before in other posts Aldershot has been becoming a dormitory town (i.e. a place where most people live, but work elsewhere), which is why there are not enough people around during the day time to support the existing “High Street” businesses. When there were large employers in and around the town, many of the people used the town centre during their lunch breaks; now a lot of those people work elsewhere and use other town’s shopping areas.

Dawi, Aldershot
31/01/2013 at 22:21

As for the developement I do not see why it should take 15 years I would like the development start far sooner creat a lot of baddly needed jobs in this area My compliant is about the limited time of the exhibition and no oppotunity for evening viewing and there are questions to be asked, how many school places will be provided on the estate what provision will there be for medical/dentistry on the estate, will there be a community centre. It is not about being a nimby it is about making sure that there are going to be adaquate services to make sure that there will be no drain on existing services

UKR
31/01/2013 at 20:19

Rushed - it is going to take 15 years to complete, that is not rushing. What is there to consult on - the choice is simple really, option 1 have an area outside the town that will become increasingly derelict and rundown as the army continues to abandon the town that was once known as the home of the British army. Or option 2 build new homes on that land creating jobs and hopefully encouraging further investment in the town with new retailers attracted, maybe even some companies looking for new corporate HQs. It is a no brainer really, the site is not historically important, the buildings of merit will be saved and refurbished, it is not heathland so no need to worry about the precious warbler that is always cited by the tree huggers, so again I ask what is there to consult on - the colour of the bricks and whether to use privet or laurels for the hedging. Please can we not use this consultation process to hold up Aldershot's opportunity to rise out from the recession that has gripped this country and has seen Aldershot suffer as the army has left the area. We now have a thriving cinema which is attracting people from Farnham and they are now regretting the 25 years the NImbys have managed to disrupt the attempts to build a cinema there. We use to be the poor relation to Farnham but that cinema has now put us ahead of them, lets continue the march forward and put Aldershot back on the map as a town of new growth and opportunity .

sleeping beauty
31/01/2013 at 19:29

Do you get the feeling that we are being rushed over this???? They are allowing one day (Saturday) for working people to have a look at what is going to happen. It should be a week long exhibition open in the evenings allowing allowing entry for working people