Overton homes refused over primary school road safety

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council has refused permission in principle for between two and four homes on a field east of Court Drove in Overton, opposite Overton Primary School. The refusal notice was issued on 13 August 2026, the day after the Development Control Committee considered the application, and it goes against the council’s own planning officers, who had recommended approval. (Notice of refusal, 26/00633/PIP)

The notice gives a single reason, and it is about the road rather than the countryside:

The proposed development by reason of its location would create an additional access in close proximity to a primary school, along a narrow section of a carriageway. It is considered that in this location, the land use and amount of development would have a detrimental impact on the highway safety to all users.

That is a refusal under Policy CN9 of the Basingstoke and Deane Local Plan 2011-2029 and the National Planning Policy Framework. The application, reference 26/00633/PIP, was submitted by Multiskill Communications Ltd through the agent Jackson Planning Ltd, was received on 25 March 2026 and was decided on 13 August. (Planning register record)

The highway authority had not objected

The striking part is where the refusal reason came from. Hampshire County Council is the highway authority for Court Drove, and its response to the consultation was that standing advice applied and that it had no objections, subject to access details being secured at a later stage. The council’s own landscape officer did object, on the scale and massing of development in open countryside, and Natural England and the council’s biodiversity officer each said they had no objection subject to conditions. (Committee report, 12 August 2026)

Highway safety is exactly what residents had written in about. Seven letters of objection were received. Among the points listed in the officer’s report were that Court Drove is effectively a cul-de-sac and already carries heavy traffic, that the road is narrow, that many children walk to school unaccompanied, that parking along the hedge at drop-off and pick-up would be lost to the visibility splay a new access requires, and that during term time emergency vehicles can already struggle to reach the school and the houses at the top of the road.

Overton Parish Council also objected. It described the application as an incremental approach to development on the edge of the village that prevented the cumulative impact from being properly considered, and it raised the loss of a mature hedgerow.

Why officers had said yes

The council cannot currently show it has enough land for the next five years of housing. Its Authority Monitoring Report of December 2025 puts the borough’s housing land supply at 3.2 years, against the five years plus a buffer that national policy requires. When an authority is in that position, the housing policies in its local plan are treated as out of date and what planners call the tilted balance applies: permission is granted unless the harm significantly and demonstrably outweighs the benefits.

On that test, officers concluded that the site sits next to Overton’s settlement policy boundary in a sustainable location, that the landscape harm at this stage was moderate, and that the detailed matters, including the access itself, could be settled later at the technical details consent stage. They recommended approval. The committee did not accept it.

The Overton Neighbourhood Development Plan 2025-2044, which several objectors cited because it puts brownfield land ahead of greenfield, could not be weighed in the balance either: it was withdrawn from examination in November 2025, and the parish council has not confirmed a date for a revised version.

The field next door tells a different story

Permission in principle is a two-stage route. It settles only location, land use and the amount of development, and it lasts three years, within which a technical details consent has to be granted or the permission lapses. The land immediately south of this site has already been through it.

In August 2025 the council granted permission in principle for a minimum of five and a maximum of eight dwellings there, and an application for the technical details, covering seven self-build dwellings and four garages to be built in eight phases, is still awaiting a decision. Before that, a 2018 scheme for four semi-detached houses, four flats and six self-build homes was refused and the appeal against it dismissed in June 2019, and a single self-build dwelling was granted in January 2023.

Objectors made the arithmetic point that the two permissions in principle together would bring the total to somewhere between seven and twelve homes, which would start to engage affordable housing requirements that neither scheme triggers on its own.

What it means for you

If you live on Court Drove or use it for the school run, nothing changes on the ground for now. The refusal removes this particular scheme, but it does not stop the adjoining development: the technical details application for seven self-build homes to the south is still live and undecided, so construction traffic on Court Drove remains a real prospect.

The applicant has six months from 13 August 2026, so until 13 February 2027, to appeal to the Secretary of State. Appeals are made through the Planning Inspectorate’s appeals service. A fresh application on the same field is also possible at any time.

The wider point is the 3.2-year figure. While the borough’s housing land supply stays below five years, applications on countryside sites next to villages will keep arriving with the tilted balance behind them, and officers will keep recommending approval on sites that the local plan says should not be built on. This refusal shows a committee can still say no, but it did so on a highway safety judgement that the highway authority itself had not made.

The minutes recording the committee’s vote had not been published when we checked. Papers for the meeting are on the council’s committee page for 12 August.

You can follow new applications in the borough on our Basingstoke planning news page, and see what homes are actually selling for on our Basingstoke house prices page.