Village parking solution in the balance as proposals hit planning obstacle

A NEW car park promoted as a way of securing the future of Beaulieu businesses suffering from traffic problems has hit a stumbling block.

The 25 new spaces proposed by the Beaulieu Estate gained permission in November – but associated plans for a house on the edge of the village, to enable the car park to go ahead, have now been withdrawn.

The idea is to ease congestion by creating a new car park reserved for residents and traders at Haywards Field in the High Street, opposite Fairweathers Garden Centre.

The site has valuable permission for a house, however, so the Beaulieu Estate proposed relocating that to Harlicks Hill in Hatchet Lane – outside the village boundary where national park authority planning policy is much stricter.

In its application to the NPA, the estate had warned the two proposals were “absolutely linked” – which puts a question mark over the car park now that one-half of the proposals has been withdrawn.

No one from the Beaulieu Estate was available to say what the next steps would be.

Its application had warned the parking shortage was putting “viability of any trade within the village at risk”.

The Harlicks Hill house plan was backed by the parish council as a “sensible relocation of an existing permission which will then enable a much-needed discreet car park”.

It recommended to the NPA: “The proposed relocated building sited at Harlicks Hill is most appropriate for the village and the topography lends itself to low impact of the development on a wider landscape.”

However, switching the location of the house was attacked by conservation group the Friends of the New Forest (formerly the New Forest Association).

Bernard Austin, chair of the Friends' planning committee, wrote: “Whilst we would support [the] application... to provide a car park in Haywards Field, the idea that this can be openly linked with transferring an extant permission for a dwelling to land at Harlicks Hill is absurd.

“This appears to be a rather naive attempt to persuade the NPA that there would be an overall planning gain to the village.”

An NPA planning officer’s briefing note said the house plan was “not encouraged” during pre-application discussions.

The withdrawn application had said: “Careful regard has been given to ensure that the design and appearance of the proposed dwelling will ensure that its construction does not have an adverse impact on the natural and built environment and/or any neighbouring homes.”