A controversial plan to move a road junction as part of the construction of a new grain store have been approved despite concerns it would move it “dangerously close” to a blind bend.

Plans for the new grain store and dryer were submitted by the owners of Doles Farm last year, with the proposals making a new access on Mays Down Lane, close to the junction of the A343. The change had been described as “an accident waiting to happen” by one resident, while four councillors voted against the plans at committee.

Cllr Nick Matthews was one of them, saying at the time: “I wouldn’t be comfortable if I’ve agreed to this and then we later find out there had been an accident or fatality and I was party to that.”

The plans have been approved as safe by highways officials.

However, the plans passed by eight votes to four, and following work to provide a new public right of way, the plans have now been approved by Test Valley Borough Council (TVBC).

The Hunt family, which owns Manor Farm, had submitted plans to build a new grain store and dryer on land near Doles Farm between Enham Alamein and Hurstbourne Tarrant in June 2020, to replace an existing store that is “inefficient and over 50 years old”.

Concerns were primarily raised about access to the site. The track along which grain lorries currently travel is a designated public footpath, with resident Richard Morgan saying that the track is so narrow that there would be “no space for dog walkers, children and cyclists to pass an HGV in a safe manner.”

As a result, the council had worked with the applicants to develop an alternative, which has now been agreed through a legal document known as a Section 106 agreement. Under the terms of the deal, a new permissive path will be constructed through fields adjacent to the track, before re-joining it once the farm area has been reached.

Now planning approval has been granted, construction must begin in the next three years.