Controversial plan for nearly 100 'affordable' homes in Tadley withdrawn

Controversial plans to build almost 100 homes at the end of a 12-house cul-de-sac in Tadley have been withdrawn – but the battle isn’t over yet.

Mr and Mrs Penson had submitted an outline planning application for the development of up to 90 ‘units’ on an unused parcel of land in the north-east corner of Bishopswood golf course, with the entrance off Deanswood Road.

The cul-de-sac would have been extended south and the hammerhead removed, and all the houses would have been designated as “affordable”.

The proposals were almost immediately met with a backlash however, as local residents rallied against the scheme – accusing the applicant of paying “no respect” to the current Deanswood Road residents.

At the time of the application being withdrawn this week, the online application had more than 250 objections, with none in favour.

Speaking to the Newbury Weekly News, applicant David Penson said Tadley had a “major shortfall” of social housing, but that he’d made the decision to withdraw the application due to Basingstoke and Deane’s “completely broken” planning system.

He said: “You must have communication and discussions and we can’t work on a tick box scenario.

“The approach we got is negative and there’s a complete lack of communication – we can’t fix something if there’s nobody we can discuss it with.”

Mr Penson said he was due to have a meeting with the borough council leader Ken Rhatigan and the council’s head of planning Ruth Ormella in the coming weeks, when he plans to discuss his concerns over the planning system and his hopes for the application going forward.