PLANS to build housing on land once occupied by a historic Hampshire pub look set to be thrown out tomorrow.

Members of the New Forest National Park Authority (NPA) are being urged to reject an application to transform the former site of the Flying Boat Inn at Calshot.

NPA officers say the proposed development would breach planning policies which aim to protect the countryside.

The Flying Boat Inn, once the officers’ mess for RAF Calshot - now Calshot Activities Centre - was demolished 18 years ago after it was ravaged by fire.

Fawley Parish Council and Calshot Residents’ Association (CRA) are supporting the application by F B Estates to build seven open market homes on the site.

In a letter to the NPA the residents’ association says: “The applicant has spent considerable time in discussion with local residents. “The proposal has reduced from 18 houses to seven in a pleasant scheme which will improve this prominent site.”

 

The letter describes the land as a brownfield site which has been an eyesore for many years.

It adds: “Local residents welcome the proposed development, which is of a type needed in the village to redress the balance of housing stock.”

But the NPA’s planning committee is being recommended to refuse the application.

A report to members says new housing is normally allowed only in what are classed as the “four defined villages” - Ashurst, Brockenhurst, Lyndhurst and Sway.

It adds: “If allowed, this proposal is likely to set a highly undesirable precedent that would encourage similarly inappropriate and ad-hoc private housing developments elsewhere in the National Park to the detriment of the long-term protection of the Forest’s unique landscape.”

The Flying Boat Inn closed in the late 1990s and was demolished following a fire in 2001.

F B Estates has applied for planning permission to build a courtyard-style development on the site.

The application says: “The proposals would have no impact on trees, and an ecological study has revealed no harm to protected species.

“The access point which served the former buildings provides good visibility on to Calshot Road.

“The development would have no significant impact on the landscape bearing in mind the 100 houses proposed on a much larger site to the north east.”