Welborne is a proposed new town to the north of
Fareham,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, intended to include 6,000 houses with businesses and community facilities.
A plan for the development was submitted for central Government examination on 23 June 2014, and modifications were published in January 2015 following the inspector's preliminary comments.
Fareham Borough Council
Fareham ( ) is a market town at the north-west tip of Portsmouth Harbour, between the cities of Portsmouth and Southampton in south east Hampshire, England. It gives its name to the Borough of Fareham. It was historically an important manufact ...
formally adopted the plan for Welborne as part of its statutory Local Plan for the Borough on 8 June 2015. Construction is scheduled in phases between 2015 and 2036, and the town was due to be completed by 2038.
Transport plans include an upgrade to Junction 10 of the
M27 motorway
The M27 is a motorway in Hampshire, England. It is long and runs between Cadnam and Portsmouth. It was opened in stages between 1975 and 1983, providing the largest two urban areas in Hampshire ( Southampton and Portsmouth) with a direct m ...
and a
bus rapid transit route.
The
Campaign to Protect Rural England
CPRE, The Countryside Charity, formerly known by names such as the ''Council for the Preservation of Rural England'' and the ''Council for the Protection of Rural England'', is a charity in England with over 40,000 members and supporters. Forme ...
is against the building of the town, describing the site as "a natural barrier from the urban sprawl of the Solent cities" and calling for the area to be designated a
green belt
A green belt is a policy and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which ...
. In 2011, a petition with 1,400 signatures objecting to a new town was submitted to the Council.
Fareham Borough Council voted to impose
Compulsory Purchase Order
A compulsory purchase order (CPO; , ) is a legal function in the United Kingdom and Ireland that allows certain bodies to obtain land or property without the consent of the owner. It may be enforced if a proposed development is considered one for p ...
s on landowners on the planned site in 2016.
The council expressed concern in 2018 that the planned houses could be unaffordable A submitted design for the site was rejected by the
Planning Inspectorate in 2018, over concerns that the area's infrastructure would be inadequate.
The Planning Inspectorate Hearings into Welborne took place in 2014. By 2022 building was yet to start, with the completion date for the first houses having become scheduled for 2023/24. On 6 June 2022 the Planning Inspectorate examined the 2037 Fareham Local Plan, and in the post-hearing letter noted that he considered completion of the first Welborne houses by 2023/24 to be "overly ambitious" and that the site "should be pushed back a year in the trajectory".
References
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Planned communities in England
Fareham