ACTION by a Basingstoke resident and a Hampshire county councillor has stopped a grade 2 listed milestone from being destroyed by a golf course development.

County councillor Stephen Reid was contacted by David Hawkins that a milestone on the A30 near the golf course development was in danger of being destroyed.

Cllr Reid, who brought the issue to the attention of the borough and county council, finally managed to get Bloor Homes’ contractors Kamm Civil Engineering group to restore the milestone.

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The borough council has also assigned its planning enforcement team on the case as there are processes to go through before a grade 2 listed asset can be interfered with.

Cllr Reid said: "The situation was actually quite complex. The milestone is a grade 2 listed asset, which means it is protected. An access road into the golf course is slated to go near the milestone site, and so something should have been done to preserve it.

“The utility works - a new gas main being laid alongside the A30 - appear to have dislodged and half buried the milestone which is what brought this matter to me.

“But the Bloor Homes contractors (KAMM) have reacted positively and have recognised the need to preserve the milestone. They are offering to store it.”

Cllr Reid said his big fear was that someone would send along a digger, scoop all the spoil into a lorry and take it away, milestone included.

“But now the soil around the milestone is being cleared and a box created to protect it. For the short term, therefore, the risk appears to have been mitigated,” he said.

Cllr Reid also expressed general concerns about listed items being destroyed during development works.

“This episode does raise a question that needs to be addressed. This is the second occasion within a few months when the work of utility companies has caused avoidable problems for the community.

“The laying of a new water main up the A30 resulted in a heap of spoil so large and so badly positioned that it caused safety concerns for motorists and precipitated an emergency road closure. And now this, where even a moment’s thought should have told the contractors that burying the milestone was the wrong thing to do.

“These instances lead me to believe that there needs to be greater supervision of the utility companies’ work and I have written to the chief officer at Hampshire to make this point.

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“In a town where too much heritage has been destroyed, I find issues like this milestone are important, which is why I applaud the work that David Hawkins did in bringing it to everyone’s attention.

“In the scheme of things, it may seem a minor matter, but we have lost so many fine trees and fields in this area that even a small victory becomes an important statement that the digger must not be allowed to rule our lives completely.”