A COUNCIL has set out its vision for the future of a controversial new 6,000-home community.

Now residents will get the chance to give their views on the detailed guidelines, on which future development in Welborne, north of Fareham, would be based.

Fareham Borough Council’s Supplementary Planning Guidance document – effectively a design brief for Welborne – will be considered by residents during the next six weeks after councillors agreed to put it out to public consultation.

If it is judged satisfactory after taking those views into account, the design guidance would be adopted by the council and would influence any future planning decisions.

The lengthy document details guidance principles for everything on the development site, which is north of the M27, from open spaces, roads and infrastructure to landscaping, emp-loyment areas, schools and community centres.

It says a key objective is to create a community that ensures an “overarching character to all residential areas of Wel-borne which embrace the principles of a 21st century ‘garden community’”.

It also wants Welborne to have a “strong identity and sense of place”.

Among the requirements, it says green space should be at the heart of all areas of development and connect to surrounding landscape and existing neighbourhoods, and that road crossing along green corridors should be kept to an “absolute minimum”.

Council leader Sean Woodward said it was a “significant” step in the Welborne process, but said the most significant step would be the public inquiry by an independent inspector in late summer looking at the soundness of the Welborne plan.

He said the document would save the council and developers time and money by showing what the council was looking for and residents and councillors would be able to judge planning applications on this criteria.

“It’s a statement of the quality of the scheme and what’s expected to be there,” said Councillor Woodward.

“Then effectively the planning committee have a checklist to say ‘We have this application, does it fit with design guidance?’”

The public inquiry this summer will examine the details of the Welborne plans to see if it is deliverable, viable and whether there are other options.

This follows a public inquiry in 2010 which assessed the soundness of the plan in principle.

A joint outline planning application by landowners of the Welborne site is expected this autumn and if, following the public inquiry, the plans are found sound, the council will adopt the Welborne plan in the new year and a detailed planning application could then follow.