24/07/05

One eighth of the the allotment land is threatened with a development change of use application. The proposed scheme to combine the Abbey Mead & Nightingale medical centres into one unit by building a new centre with car parking on the Southampton Road allotment site is in discussion.

Currently the land is registered as countryside and agricultural use and recognised as such by the Test Valley Borough Council (TVBC) in its policy statement. To proceed with any development will require a change of use application to commercial. It is important to the people of Romsey that a change in policy and land definition does not take place.

The TVBC planning process would be more wide ranging than the 1and 1/4 acres under discussion and the obvious question is what is to become of the remaining 8 acres? The historical application by Broadlands Estate has been a package of use. A medical centre and another form of commercial enterprise such as a supermarket.

An Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) took place on the 28th July and 150 people including the MP Sandra Gidley, TVBC councillors, Romsey Parish and other dignitaries together with the general public and residents of Knatchball Close attended. The following organisations declined to attend:

a. Abbey Mead & Nightingale Surgeries

b. Broadlands Estate

c. Ashley House (the proposed scheme developers)

It was established that the Test Valley Borough Council had commissioned Ashley House to find a suitable 'Greenfield' site for the new surgery.

ALTERNATE SITE REJECTED

It was stated by the Commitee that an alternate site offered by Broadlands Estate by the railway bridge was rejected for three important reasons:

1. Land subject to flooding in Winter

2. Non- fertile clay based soil

3. Existing weed infestation.