Ex-barracks site to get a sports hub and store
A DEEPCUT estate will be getting a new Asda and a sports hub after planning proposals were given the green light.
The former Princess Royal Barracks was given planning permission in 2014 for what Surrey Heath Borough Council staff described as a “significant” redevelopment. It included 1,200 homes, a primary school and various community and retail amenities. The estate will now get the new additions after plans were signed off for a store and leisure facilities at the major development site.
The sports hub will take up seven hectares and includes pitches, a multi-use games area, playgrounds and an outdoor gym. The borough council also wants to build a pavilion with changing areas, showers and a kitchen. Cllr Kevin Thompson (Lightwater, LD) described the hub as a “very extensive set of facilities for the area”.
The former Princess Royal Barracks site occupies about 114 hectares and is one of the key development areas in Surrey Heath.
Among the initial outline permission was a large 2,000sq m supermarket, but the borough council was unable to find any retailer willing to take on a site of that scale saying there was “no longer a requirement
for such a large store due to significant changes in the food sector since the application was submitted”.
Instead, a smaller convenience store within part of the former museum will be opened as an Asda Express, and will be about threequarters of the size of the Sainsbury’s Local in Heatherside after being granted permission at a meeting on Thursday, March 21.
To give the residents a greater sense of community, Surrey Heath’s planning committee has agreed to the new sports hub, which officers described as being a “public, open and recreational space... to serve the Mindenhurst development and the wider community”.
When asked if the site was for people just to ‘rock up’ or whether it would be restricted to those in the immediate area, officers replied: “The purpose of the facilities is primarily to serve the Mindenhurst development, that’s what it’s there for. It is part and parcel of the overall package of facilities, but that’s not to say that the rest of the community can’t come and play because that’s the very nature of the facility we’re providing, or that we will be providing. In the first instance this is for Deepcut, but I think as time goes by, it’s like all sports facilities throughout the borough, it’s a benefit to the community as a whole.”
The site will also include parking for coaches and buses to allow visiting teams to use the pitches.