Basingstoke Gateway: Warehouses prove unpopular among councillors

Some members of the Economic, Planning and Housing committee expressed their concerns with the proposed distribution centre at Oakdown Farm, with one councillor saying that it did not suit with the 'Gateway to Basingstoke' vision.

As previously reported, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council are exploring options for land surrounding junction 7 of the M3 after a number of developments are touted for the area.

It includes a new hospital, with the NHS putting land in the vicinity on a shortlist of two for a new hospital, and a number of warehouses that could include a distribution centre for online delivery giant Amazon.

The authority have drafted a 'strategic vision' for the land surrounding the motorway junction, which contains plans for both the hospital and warehouse development, plus a new mass rapid transit system (MRTS), park and ride and transport hub.

Gateway to Basingstoke

The vision states that new health facilities should be located close the the junction and the A30 "to allow high quality transport links", whilst it should reinforce the role of the area as a 'Gateway to Basingstoke'.

But according to Brighton Hill councillor Andy Konieczko, warehouses do not fit with that idea.

He described the council's plans for a gateway as "somewhere as people drive past, people are inspired to find out more about our wonderful borough".

"But I am struggling to envisage a gateway to Basingstoke alongside a distribution warehouse and potentially even a hospital, both of which are known to be quite utilitarian buildings, perhaps with design not at the forefront," he said.

"How do we square that so that we do have a gateway to Basingstoke but get the facilities that we need?"

His reservations about the warehouse project were shared among many members of the committee, with others suggesting a science park or health campus would fit better with the vision.

Transport

With the site on a strategic transport location which sees the A30, A33, A303 and M3 merge, infrastructure was a key point of debate.

The vision states that a transport interchange should be built, with a mass rapid transit network connecting the town centre and the campus.

On top of this, the A30 should be improved, as well as the motorway junctions.

And Cllr Konieczko called this "quite critical" to the vision.

"That area and junction 8 where we have got the A303 merging with the M3 is already quite confusing so I think it is critical that an important part of the vision focuses on that as well."

Meanwhile, one or even two train stations should be opened at Oakley to allow people to commute into Basingstoke and London, according to deputy mayor Cllr Onnalee Cubitt.

The line, which currently passes through the village but without a stop, used to serve Oakley before its station was shut as part of the so-called 'Beeching cuts' of the 1960s.

And with a government ambition to reopen some of the closed-down lines, Cllr Cubitt said that it should form part of the transport plan to go along the MRTS.

"I know it is not popular with everybody," she conceded at last week's meeting, "but we have a Beeching line there and in view of the housing that is going to be there, and we know that most people that live in the houses that we are building do not work in Basingstoke, they commute, and we know that junction 6 has issues and the railway station at Basingstoke has trains that are full, to my mind it is so obvious that we should aspire, and given the government has said that it wishes to encourage [this], that Beeching Line to be reopened so that commuters that are going to live in the houses around there can get onto the railway system at Oakley."

Additionally, there are rumours that a station could be built in Chineham as part of a review into the A33 corridor between Basingstoke and Reading.

Cllr Mark Ruffell, the cabinet member leading on the strategic vision, promised to take the committee's feedback into account before the document is released for public consultation later this month.