Developments at Lodge Farm

The potential developer (Obsidian Strategic) of a huge warehouse site at Lodge Farm, North Warnborough has, rightly, caused a high level of concern on Social Media with its attempt at a “public consultation” via a Zoom Call on Wednesday, 4th October.

It seems clear that a significant number of people are still not aware of what is being proposed.  To address this, to provide a reliable source of information, and to offer a focus of protest against the proposals, a group of local citizens has formed “Villages Oppose Warehousing” - VOW.

The bare facts are these:

The owners of Lodge Farm have entered into a commercial agreement with a professional development company called Obsidian Strategic to create an 80-acre warehouse distribution complex on existing farmland adjacent to Junction 5 of the M3.

Obsidian Strategic submitted a scoping opinion application to Hart District Council – HDC - in June 2022.  That was followed in September 2022 with a more detailed submission, called a “Pre-Application” in which Obsidian sought reaction from HDC on the details of the proposed development.  In response, HDC sought opinions from local residents.  Various statutory bodies, such as Hampshire County Council’s Highways Authority and Natural England were also requested to comment.

The scoping opinion application (Number: 22/01347/EIA ) can be found here.

The pre-app (Number: 22/01355/PREAPP) can be found here.

Hart’s decision on the pre-app, on 2nd December 2022, was decidedly negative and Obsidian were invited to reconsider and put right a wide range of unacceptable aspects “should they choose to proceed”.  This decision was widely welcomed, not only by Odiham Parish Council, but also by other parish councils in the local area.  However, the hope that this was the end of the matter proved forlorn. During the 4th October Zoom Call, Obsidian announced it intends to submit an “Outline Planning Application” probably in December this year. This will be intended to find out, at an early stage, whether or not their revised proposal is likely to be approved by the planning authority, before any further costs are incurred. If all goes Obsidian’s way, a Full Planning Application can be expected early in the new year.

Those who watched the hour-long “consultation” via Zoom on 4th October will now have formed their own opinions on what Obsidian is doing and why.  VOW’s first reactions are summed up as:

·      This was not a consultation: it was a presentation, plus a few screened and carefully curated questions.  VOW would have preferred a face-to-face public meeting.

·      The revised plans do not vary in any significant aspect from the 2022 plan.  Obsidian has merely applied a cosmetic gloss combined with several unsubstantiated claims;

·      The necessary re-working of Junction 5 and its access roads will create huge disruption during the re-build and will have a disruptive impact locally.

·      Obsidian still does not, at this stage, have any tenants for their 5 warehouses, despite their repeated claims that the country is crying out for warehouse space.  It is incorrect to mention Amazon as a tenant.

·      The warehouse floorspace has been reduced from the 2022 proposal of 105,000 sqm to 99,873 sqm – a token amount.  But each warehouse will be between 18 and 20 metres high – equivalent to a six or seven storey building.  They will be highly visible over a wide area.

VOW remains very concerned over a number of issues:

·      how the local labour pool can support “up to” 2,400 unspecified jobs:

·      the impact of 24-hour traffic flows into and out of the site:

·      Obsidian intends to direct the surface water run-off from the entire development into the River Whitewater one of only 200 Chalk Streams in the entire world:

·      the forecast 2-year construction time for the site:

·      24 hour noise and light pollution when in use:  

·      the destructive impact on footpaths and cycle ways:

·      and devastating impact on our wildlife and countryside

Obsidian once again failed to provide any substantiated justification for building on land that is designated as farmland.   This is in contradiction to several policies in the Neighbourhood Plan, Local Plan and National Planning Policy Framework.

Obsidian have to prove to HDC not only that there is a pressing need for a logistics hub and the only place for that hub is Lodge Farm, but also Obsidian will have to demonstrate that the positive impact outweighs the long list of negatives.

This was Hart’s fundamental objection.  If Obsidian fail to provide this justification then the whole application fails.  Drainage, traffic, pollution and other issues are then just nails in the coffin.

Finally, VOW emphasizes that the monster that is being proposed would affect not only North Warnborough, Odiham and Hook: it would have a deleterious effect on the wider community across the whole of NE Hampshire.  We will continue to fight this.