Major plans to revamp a Fareham park by building a new community centre have taken a step forward.

An outline planning application to replace the existing community centre and petanque floodlights to the north of Henry Cort Drive has been submitted to Fareham Borough Council.

The longer-term plan is for the existing facilities to be demolished once the new facilities have been completed. In the short term, the site to the north of Henry Cort Drive will be returned to grass.  

The Fareham Park recreation ground is 2.6 hectares of open space and car parking at Hillson Drive Fareham, with architects at Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands producing plans for the council’s relocation and redevelopment of the Fareham North West Community Centre.

This application said: “It presents a vision for a new community centre of no more than 1000m2. The final appearance of the community centre has yet to be confirmed.”

“It will be a single-storey building with a pitched roof, of a design and in materials sympathetic to the environment. The new building will be fully accessible and include the provision of a toilet facility that is able to be accessed externally by users of the pitch. The proposal is for a bar area not to be included within the designs.”

The planning statement said the new community centre will be flanked to the north by a replacement pétanque terrain, a vital sporting and social activity within this community. The pétanque terrain will feature 30 LED flood lights designed to minimise the light pollution to neighbouring households.

Within the community centre, facilities could include a reception and socialising/chill-out space, a main hall with 180-person capacity, a 60-person secondary hall with independent access for a food bank, rooms for training, a pre-school or counselling, toilets and a kitchen.

Council documents said the public is concerned about parking at the site and therefore the council will adopt a phased approach to the application to help with adjusting parking provision.

It is all part of the borough council’s vision for new, larger, and more flexible community and leisure facilities able to respond to local needs and support the work of organisations and residents’ activities.

There are currently three car parks that allow for parking; the existing community centre provides parking for 34 cars to the north of Henry Cort Drive and Henry Cort Community College provides 101 spaces in total. 

With the future of Henry Court Community College unknown at this time the car park allocation can not be finalised further. A second public consultation on the future of the college will start on January 10 with its outcome known by June.