BRAMLEY is set to benefit from more than £1million in infrastructure investment after plans to build 200 new homes in the village were given the green light.

Councillors on Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s development control committee gave unanimous support to the proposed development at Minchens Lane, in Bramley.

Three planning applications – an outline planning application for 200 homes, an application for a new footpath, cycleway and resurfacing of the Clift Meadow car park, and an extension to the Clift Surgery – were approved at last Wednesday’s meeting.

As part of the scheme, developer Charles Church Southern has said that it will put £333,000 towards the doctor’s surgery extension and resurfacing of the Clift Meadow car park, £350,000 towards highway improvements on the A33 and around the village, £200,000 towards a proposed footbridge at Bramley railway station, and £971,000 for an extension to Bramley Primary School.

Bramley Parish Council chairman Councillor Tony Durrant spoke in support of the three applications at the meeting, saying it was a unique opportunity to secure vital infrastructure that is needed in the village.

Cllr Durrant said: “We had to look at what benefits it will bring. The vast majority of respondents to our consultation said that this site was the most suitable for a 200-home development.”

However, Cllr Ranil Jayawardena, borough council deputy leader and Bramley ward councillor, spoke against the plans, telling the meeting that residents taking part in the parish council’s neighbourhood development plan would prefer to see a couple of sites with 50 homes rather than one large site.

He said: “These proposals fly in the face of what local residents say. This (Minchens Lane) is a single track road and to suggest that a no-right-turn will solve the problem is ridiculous. In fact, it recognises there is a problem.”

Grandfather-of-three Chris Flooks of Pound Close, Bramley, also spoke against the development, raising concerns over the risk of flooding in Minchens Lane and the safety of nearby roads.

But Jeremy Higgins, planning director at Pro Vision Homes, spoke in favour of the development, telling the meeting: “The application before you is the culmination of a year of meetings and consultation with the parish council and the local community. Through our discussion with the parish council and the local community, we have established this is the preferred site to accommodate 200 dwellings.”

All members of the 12-strong development control committee voted in favour of the application.