DEMONSTRATORS have been protesting against plans to develop a farm into warehouse units, highlighting traffic dangers and calling it a "blot on the land."
An application to build warehouses on the land of Oakdown Farm, Dummer, which is currently in its third iteration having previously been rejected, will be discussed in an upcoming Development Control Committee on Wednesday, November 6.
Ahead of the meeting, councillors visited various sites in Dummer and were met by Clean Air and Green Environment (CAGE), a group co-ordinating objections to the large warehouse development proposed on Oakdown Farm.
Stafford Napier led the protest and told the Gazette that he has concerns over excess traffic that would be caused if the green light is given to the project.
READ MORE: Amended Oakdown Farm plans called a 'monstrosity' as residents object to scheme
He said: "Personally, I live in Dummer village and the biggest impact will be lighting, it will be a blot on the landscape.
"Also the dangers of traffic, this is an HGV operation and we will have one HGV every minute coming in and out of this site.
"It also affects increasingly other areas as well, we have Hounsome Fields with 750 houses, we have the golf course being redeveloped, the dangers of traffic diverting and parking up in those areas is also a very real danger, as has been demonstrated elsewhere in the country on sites where there are warehouses."
Scores of locals banded together in the cold morning on Friday, November 1 to collectively protest against the proposals.
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Stafford said: "We have probably around 30 people here, which on a cold November morning is probably very good considering it's in the middle of the day when a lot of people would be at work.
"It is simply to demonstrate the strength of feeling to the councillors who have come around to look at the site."
Stafford explained how the development plans had been rejected twice already, and that hundreds of objections had been voiced.
He said: "The real work is done both beforehand, where there have been over 300 letters of objection, and there is a chance next Wednesday to address the committee as well."
One of the key selling factors of the development is that it would created a number of jobs, however, Stafford doesn't believe it would create as many as people are led to believe.
He said: "They talk about the benefit of jobs and, of course, this is what is known as an 'HGV in/HGV' out operations - it's not 'last mile' - which is the technical term - so actually the number of jobs will probably be quite limited.
"It's not an operation like an Amazon distribution centre where you have HGVs in and lots of little vans going out with lots of picking and selecting going on and packing, it's very much more a storage and distribution operation.
"So it's very open to automation and so the number of jobs may be quite limited and it probably wouldn't make a very good gateway into Basingstoke."
The outcome of the planning application will be decided by Basingstoke and Deane Boough Council in a meeting next Wednesday, November 6.
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