The ugly duckling continues as Astral’s Chairman ‘Cutts’ out the key issues

The Pru’s joint developer is Astral Development and their Chairman John Cutts says “When you see the site, it’s difficult to see why anyone would object”

It’s not the site we are objecting to Mr. Cutts, it is what you propose to do with it!

Should we, as your suggest, just focus on the existing well screened by mature woodland site (recently your plan included the removal of over 1,000,000 sq ft of woodland)? No thanks, our concerns are about your approach in trying to deceive us in to accepting a continuous HGV generating Mega Depot that will alter our corner of North East Hampshire and our neighbouring Surrey and Berkshire borders for ever! 

Mr. Cutts, would you accept this Mega Depot close to your home?

We can demonstrate rational and scientifically supported concern at having your Pyestock Mega Depot located close to residential properties:

“..any redevelopment of the site within current policy designation for employment use would result in conflicts with any associated new housing i.e. HGV traffic and 24-hour operation, and major noise and other environmental issues associated with this.”

Who stated this major concern Mr. Cutts? Your own representatives did! click here

In the same letter they were reducing the largest mega shed to 629,000 sq ft in response to a Hart Planning official’s report (click here), including:

“..These structures are vast and are likely to be far larger than any other structure within Hart District currently and perhaps the remainder of Hampshire..

“..the strategic gap will cease to function as a divide between the settlements of Fleet, Cove and Farnborough and this would be a direct contravention of our policies.”

You are now proposing the largest mega shed size to be 860,000 sq ft - over one third larger than the reduced shed size of 629,000 sq ft! Remember, recently you were caught out as you were actively advertising a Mega Shed of 1,250,000 sq ft, not just the largest in Hampshire but in Britain, as exposed in The Sunday Times click here and the BBC News click here

We can demonstrate your plan for Pyestock is understated with regards to:

• HGVs traffic and 24 hour operation

At least 1,500 HGV movements per day (worse than one per minute x 24 hours per day x 7 days per week) and not the misleading 600 HGV movements you suggest

• Noise and other environmental issues

We will shortly cover these issues

Mr. Cutts, it appears that your Mega Depot would be located the same distance from our homes as your Helipad is located from your home – would you like your Mega Depot there instead?

Also, as you would not consider building homes close to the Mega Depot due to the issues the Mega Depot would create and we can demonstrate these issues would be far worse than you state, then surely you can understand why we have an issue with your 24 x 7 Mega Depot plan being located close to our homes?