NEW town plans have taken a major step forward with the village centre approved. 

Welborne Garden Village is a 6,000-home scheme that has been in the pipeline for more than two decades. 

Fareham Borough Council's planning committee approved the village centre, with construction due to start in the autumn. 

The centre will be the initial hub of Welborne and will provide essential amenities to residents and neighbours from an early stage of the development. These will include a two-form entry primary school, a GP surgery and pharmacy, a nursery, a pub/hotel, cafes, shops, and sports facilities.

In line with Welborne’s ‘local first’ supplier policy, the aim is to attract local and regional retailers and hospitality businesses to the centre, with favourable rents being offered to the first occupants pre-footfall.

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Welborne Village Centre  (Image: Contributed)

The village centre will also incorporate some homes, consisting of a mix of houses and apartments, with 14 affordable units. It will be built partly by Buckland Development in the style of a traditional Hampshire market town and is due to be completed by early 2027. 

The buildings will be heated and cooled by a low carbon water source heat network. The area will also benefit from up to one gigabit superfast broadband inside and outside, as well as EV charging points. 

The centre will be a short walk from two new parks – Welborne Park and Dashwood Park - as well as new public access to 38 hectares of the nearby Dashwood ancient woodland. 

Mark Thistlethwayte, Buckland Group chairman, said: “In designing the Welborne Village Centre, we are aiming to create a community hub right from the start, with all the essential amenities residents will need within a beautiful setting. 

“For the design, we have drawn architectural inspiration from popular Hampshire market towns like Alresford and Stockbridge.

“Whether it’s having a coffee in your favourite café, picking up your Sunday roast from the local butchers, or having a drink in a charming pub garden, the Centre will offer the best of local produce and hospitality. 

“The early delivery of comprehensive community infrastructure is core to the Welborne development approach, which we believe is an essential investment for the long-term both financially and socially.”

As the Welborne community grows over the next decade, this initial village centre will be complemented by a larger district centre providing all the necessary services for residents within walking distance. There will also be two further new primary schools and one secondary. 

The village centre planning approval follows the approval earlier this year of the first wave of 474 homes, of which the first few are already in the advanced stages of construction.