AN APPLICATION to demolish buildings and create nearly 40 homes has been submitted to the council.
A hybrid planning application for the redevelopment of the site of Testway House, Andover to demolish the existing building and to seek full planning permission to construct 39 dwellings with associated parking, access and landscaping, together with outline permission for a commercial unit was submitted to Test Valley Borough Council on Wednesday, September 11.
The Aster Group development would include 24 houses and 15 flats, with a mix of one to three-bedroom homes. In addition, 77 car parking spaces, an area of public open space and landscaping.
Proposed residential dwellings will be a mixture of townhouses, houses and apartments, one, two and three-bedrooms, located on the northern section of the site, with the commercial unit located on the southwest section of the site.
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Greenwich Way will separate the new residential units from the existing employment sites at Meridian Park.
The proposed apartment block will be three storeys in height and located towards the east boundary of the site in a similar position to the existing building.
An existing access point will lead to the parking area for the apartments, and communal gardens will be located to the rear of the block.
In response to the pre-application advice, some of the houses will front Greenwich Way to create an active frontage and promote a residential character to the northern side of the road.
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Those houses will be three storeys in height to complement the scale of the new apartment block.
Two access points will lead to parking areas and the remainder of the houses, with buildings orientated to face the roads within the development to provide for natural surveillance of all the parking/communal areas.
Each house will have its own parking and private garden. The layout will also provide for areas of landscaping and additional visitor parking spaces.
A public footpath connects the east and west sections of the site, with the potential to link into the River Anton Way and the Anton Lakes Local Nature Reserve to the west should the Council wish
Prior approval for the change of use from offices to 21 apartments was granted in August 2021 but has not been implemented.
On the adjacent site at Guilbert House an application to construct assisted living/extra care accommodation and an 80 bed care home was withdrawn in March 2023. A similar proposal with an alternative layout is currently under consideration.
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