IT WAS the £11.5 million building once set to become a new police headquarters for Hampshire which lay empty for five years and where nobody ever worked.

Alpha Park was controversially bought with taxpayers money for £9.6 million – £3 million over the asking price – and had to be given round-the-clock security costing a further £1.8 million while it lay unused until cash strapped force bosses decided to cut their losses and sell it off.

Now the “white elephant” is at the heart of a new set of controversial plans as councillors debate whether or not to allow developers to turn it in to an industrial site with warehouse and distribution facilities.

The firm behind the plans claim the proposed new units at the site in Electron Way, Valley Park, Chandler’s Ford, will create more than 180 jobs.

Planning bosses have recommended that the southern area planning committee approves the application.

A duplicate planning application has been submitted to Eastleigh Borough Council, where the majority of the site lies, which has now approved the application under delegated powers, but Valley Park Parish Council, which the site partly lies in, has objected to the service area behind residential properties in Burnham Beeches which are only 40 metres away.

They said: “No amount of screening or acoustic barriers will mitigate the noise levels that these service yards will generate as indicated within the noise assessment.”

They added that they wanted the service area moved, only electric forklift trucks used, sufficient parking to prevent employees parking on surrounding roads and operations outside of 7am to 6.15pm restricted to inside.

As previously reported, Alpha Park – which was sold off by force chiefs at a loss last year – was described as “an embarrassment” to Hampshire Constabulary by police federation chiefs who said the huge sums of money would “stick in the throat” of rank and file officers.

Police and crime commissioner Simon Hayes announced he would sell off the site as part of a £40m estates review to save the force money.

The 8.5-acre site on the School Lane industrial estate currently has a vacant factory, previously used by an electronics manufacturer, which would be demolished in a separate planning application.

Developer Bericote Properties Ltd has bought the site and plans to invest up to £20m transforming it with the new units, which would be used as warehouse storage or distribution centres.

The company says it has interested parties for all the units and an agreement for the second building with a firm that would provide around 100 jobs on its own.

The new units would cover 13,812sqm of floorspace on two levels, provide 143 parking spaces and would be in 24 hour use.

It is bordered by the Alpha Brook along one side, with homes in Monmouth Close beyond, and industrial buildings.

The Southern Area Planning Committee will meet on Tuesday at 5.30pm.