Bishop's Waltham Esso could be replaced with six homes

Chris Southcott, of developer Maxwell Homes Winchester, wants to demolish the former Esso garage in Winchester Road, Bishop's Waltham.

The garage closed in around 2015 and the six homes would all have three bedrooms. 

By Thursday, January 11, no public comments had been submitted to Winchester City Council in support or objection. 

The application's planning statement said: “The site forms a prominent location on the outskirts of the town and built up street frontage. Winchester Road is the main road into Bishop's Waltham and is a traditional main trunk road providing access to housing and links back to the main village centre. The site is close to the local facilities and amenities and is within 200 metres of Bishop's Waltham town centre.

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“The existing site is occupied by a former petrol station with commercial buildings and concrete hard standings. The main access to the site is taken from Winchester Rod with an egress and ingress arrangement commonly found with old petrol stations. The site is very visual from the public realm and is currently in a derelict state with overgrown vegetation and redundant buildings. The site was formerly a petrol station and garage with these uses now ceased and the site decontaminated.

“The proposals involve the erection of six three-bedroom houses on underused land within the urban area. Vehicle access will be taken off Winchester Road using the existing access and dropped kerbs to the main highway. New boundary treatments will enclose the site to re-establish the character to the street scenes. The new dwellings will be designed in a traditional residential style form with brickwork and feature gables and pitched roofs finished with plain tiles.

“The new dwellings form a terrace pattern across the site continuing the building lines from the adjoining properties to the north and east of the site. Gardens are then created to the rear of the new houses using the remainder of the land backing onto the pond. The new car parking areas have been designed to the front of the site in order to provide courtyard areas to Winchester Road. The new houses flowing the line of the pond in order to avoid the flood zone area.

“The proposals provide the opportunity to develop a brownfield site that has been left redundant and derelict for many years.”

For more details on the scheme, search 23/02631/FUL on Winchester City Council's online planning portal.