New plan for seven houses on land formerly occupied by Flying Inn Boat at Calshot

F B Estates has applied for planning permission to redevelop a site which has been vacant since the Flying Boat Inn in Calshot Road, Calshot, burned down almost 20 years ago.

Fawley Parish Council is recommending the New Forest National Park Authority (NPA) to approve the plans.

A previous proposal for seven homes on the site was rejected by the NPA, which said the development would breach planning policies that aimed to protect the countryside.

The parish council and Calshot Residents’ Association (CRA) had supported the application.

In a letter to the NPA the residents’ association said: “The applicant has spent considerable time in discussion with local residents. The proposal has reduced from 18 houses to seven in a pleasant scheme which will improve this prominent site.”

The letter described the land as a brownfield site which had been an eyesore for many years.

It added: “Local residents welcome the proposed development, which is of a type needed in the village to redress the balance of housing stock.”

But the NPA’s planning committee refused to support the proposal.

A report to members said new housing was normally allowed only in what it described as the “four defined villages” - Ashurst, Brockenhurst, Lyndhurst and Sway.

It added: “If allowed, this proposal is likely to set a highly undesirable precedent that would encourage similarly inappropriate and ad-hoc private housing developments elsewhere in the National Park to the detriment of the long-term protection of the Forest’s unique landscape.”

Now F B Estates has submitted a revised scheme which aims to overcome the previous objections.

The application says: "The proposals would have no impact on trees and an ecological survey has revealed no harm to protected species. The existing access point which served the former buildings provides good visibility on to Calshot Road."

A design statement which forms part of the application says the farmyard-style layout aims to reflect the site's semi-rural setting.

It adds: "Overall the proposals present a smaller footprint and a less dominant development than the Flying Boat Inn and a reduction in scale compared to the previous proposals."

The pub was once the officers' mess for RAF Calshot - now Calshot Activities Centre. It closed in the late 1990s and was demolished in 2001.