A HAMPSHIRE council is piling on the pressure to hasten the development of a new 6,000-home town.

Fareham Borough Council has revealed that it will push to purchase the land that Welborne, Hampshire’s next garden village, will sit on through a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) despite Buckland Development having already submitted an outline planning application earlier this month.

The council is also seeking to partner with alternative developers or investors from across the UK and Europe that shares its vision for Welborne to deliver a more workable strategy.

Councillor Seán Woodward, leader of Fareham Borough Council said: “We aren’t afraid to put our feet to the fire, as Buckland may be incapable of delivering their promise.

“The council continues to progress its delivery strategy for Welborne. We are currently assessing Buckland Development’s recently submitted application.

“However, the applicant does not currently have control over enough of the land at Welborne to be able to deliver the new community. We are therefore keen to secure an experienced delivery partner who can work with us to make Welborne a great place to live and work.”

Applicants will need to demonstrate a track record in delivering high-quality and large developments with an emphasis on design excellence.

Experience of providing superior public open spaces and community facilities will also be a key requirement.

However, Mark Thistlethwayte, chairman of Buckland Development, branded the council’s delivery strategy as foolish.

He said: “We are disappointed that Fareham Borough Council is continuing to pursue its programme to seek a development partner as part of their compulsory purchase of the Welborne site, despite the fact it has now received our comprehensive outline planning application and publicly welcomed this.

“FBC has noted that the application is the biggest they have seen in 31 years, demonstrating the enormous amount of work and commitment from BDL. The lack of an application was cited by FBC as a reason to start the compulsory purchase order process. We have now provided the application, yet the CPO is still going ahead.

“BDL has a long-standing involvement in Welborne and we will continue to push ahead with our plans, having committed a huge amount of work and effort in order to demonstrate the delivery of a high-quality, sustainable new community.

“Importantly, the recent submission of our planning application puts us ahead of FBC’s timescales for delivering Welborne by several months.”

The council has now put in a bid notice in the Official Planning Journal of the European Union (OJEU) on March 22 with the aim of appointing a delivery partner by the end of 2017.