A HOMEBUILDER has submitted a revised planning application to build 102 new homes at Augusta Park after their initial plan for 130 homes was rejected.

Taylor Wimpey is looking to build 102 dwellings along with a retail convenience store and a sub-station on land west of Finkley Farm Road in East Anton.

Their initial plan for 130 houses was rejected by Test Valley Borough Council in March this year.

Council officers recommended the proposal for rejection on a total of 16 grounds, including that it was not “high quality development”, a shortfall in parking provision, and lack of private outdoor space for apartments located above garage blocks.

READ MORE: Plans for 130 new homes at Augusta Park unanimously rejected

The development is part of the East Anton development area which gained outline permission for up to 2,500 homes some 14 years ago - a number that has not yet been yet.

The site, which extends to approximately 4.27ha and lies to the west of Finkley Farm Road, is located within the Augusta Park development at East Anton (previously known as the East Anton Major Development Area).

To the north of the site lies an area of public open space which includes a Locally Equipped Area for Play (LEAP) and a Multi Use Games Area (MUGA); to the south of the site lies the YMCA Nursery and the Endeavour Primary School; and, to the east and west of the site are residential properties along Dairy Road and Finkley Farm Road.

At the moment it is a managed grassland. The only existing building on the site is a small sub-station, located within the south west part of the site. The eastern boundary of the site is bound by street tree planting along Finkley Farm Road. The site contains two existing access points, to the east from Finkley Farm Road and to the west from Dairy Road.

The new application has less density of houses and addresses, which were some of the concerns raised by planning officers in the previous application.

However, the new submission has still received objections from residents and Andover Town Council.

In a planning committee meeting on Monday, the council decided to object to the plan again on various grounds. 

Although town council acknowledged that the new application has less houses, councillors said the project is not future proofed.

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Cllr Luigi Gregori, who is a member of the planning committee, said: “I agree that it's an improvement compared to the previous plan. It has got low housing density. They gave us that. But the real problem we had was the complete lack of future proofing.

“There are no electrical vehicle charging points, no solar panels, no heat pumps or anything like that. I think their plan is to build these houses over the next three or four years. So people who buy them are then going to have to do quite significant uplift.”