Popham ‘Logistics Park’
The Dever Society is urging people to object to the planning application for Popham Logistics Park, a proposed large warehouse and logistics park on West Farm, Popham. The owner of West Farm is John Magnier, the same landowner who is intensively promoting the new town at Micheldever Station.
We strongly object to this application and believe it should be refused for multiple reasons. The proposal conflicts with policies in both the adopted and emerging Basingstoke Local Plans, particularly those relating to development in the countryside, employment development, water resources and pollution, biodiversity, transport and landscape.
We are also deeply concerned about the impact of the development on protected and rare species at West Farm and the permanent loss of agricultural land, the majority of which is classified as ‘Best and Most Versatile’. The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) makes clear that such land should be protected from significant, inappropriate or unsustainable development proposals.
Although the formal deadline for comments is 28 May, we have been assured by Basingstoke Council that all representations sent in after this date but before the decision on the planning application is made will be taken into account.
Here are some of reasons we are concerned about this application:
Massive increases in traffic on the A33: Tens of thousands of extra vehicles a day, including thousands of HGVs, will use the A33 24 hours a day as their access to the site, with two new access roundabouts being built on the A33. This will result in a huge increase in cars, vans and HGVs using the single carriageway A33 to travel to and from Southampton and Basingstoke and beyond. Access to the A33 by the villages and houses along this stretch of road will become difficult and potentially hazardous. Already the junction at the Cart and Horses is extremely dangerous, with a worrying number of accidents. The new M3 junction at Winnall does not take account of this significant increase in traffic, and the link from the A33 into the new junction is only single carriageway, making congestion along this road extremely likely.
Our chalk streams at risk: The site sits directly above the aquifer feeding the rivers Dever, Test, Itchen and Loddon, all internationally important and rare chalk streams. Diesel, oil, zinc, copper, lead and cadmium entering groundwater through soakaways can contaminate groundwater, creating long-lasting pollution in the aquifer, eventually emerging into the chalk streams.
No water to spare: Basingstoke Council is reviewing its Local Plan over water supply concerns. The government recently rejected the 15,000-20,000 new town proposed at Micheldever because of “significant water supply issues” in the area. How to deal with wastewater is also hugely important, with the landowners assuming that this will be dealt with by the sewage treatment works at North Waltham, a small treatment works appropriate for a village only.
400 acres of our best farmland lost: The majority of the land is classified as the ‘Best and Most Versatile’ agricultural land – the government’s own policy is that developers and planning authorities should protect such land from “significant, inappropriate or unsustainable development proposals.” What John Magnier and his team are proposing would mean that this important farmland would be gone forever. Their own report admits this is "Major Adverse Significant" harm with no mitigation possible.
Wildlife habitat lost and fragmented: Protected species on the site are being ignored. Barn owls, skylarks, barbastelle bats, greater horseshoe bats and hazel dormice have all been recorded on site - but required ecological surveys aren't even complete.
A scar on the landscape and an unsuitable site: West Farm is located on high ground and is visible for miles around. The proposed warehouses are a massive 254,000 square meters in area – this is equivalent to 40 football pitches – and 25m high, the height of six double decker buses. The undulating nature of West Farm means that massive earthworks would need to be undertaken to level the site for construction, requiring hundreds of thousands of tonnes of material. Initial archaeological surveys indicate the presence of an Iron Age Banjo enclosure and the remains of possible later prehistoric and Romano-British settlement and field systems, as well as traces of medieval and post-medieval activity. These would be destroyed forever.