PLANS to demolish a house in Love Lane and replace it with either five houses or 24 flats have provoked a tsunami of opposition.

Among those against the proposals from Barry Wright of Exclusive Developments are Petersfield Town Council, the Petersfield Society, individual councillors and residents.

Mr Wright proposes to demolish a house called Oakfield at the entrance to Love Lane from Tor Way in Petersfield to make way for the controversial development.

This part of the lane ends in the council-owned playing fields car park, used by Churcher’s College students, parents of pupils at Herne Junior School and two nurseries and Petersfield Town and Town Juniors football clubs.

Petersfield ambulance station also exits on to Love Lane nearby and the entrance to the busy Petersfield Community Centre faces Oakfield’s drive.

In its objection, the council said the development would be an “unsafe increase in traffic and congestion on what is an already busy road used by children attending Herne School, Churcher’s College, Little Gems Day Nursery and Jigsaw Montessori Nursery.”

The Petersfield Society says the proposal appears to take no account of the climate crisis and the design “is dreadful, mediocre in the extreme, banal, and completely unacceptable.

“It is wholly contrary to the highest standards of design required for development within the South Downs National Park.”

One resident added: “Love Lane is too small to sustain the amount of traffic either proposal would generate.

“The road access does not and cannot accommodate the traffic generated by 24 flats, and the pavements are not big enough already for two people to pass without stepping off into oncoming traffic.

“It’s right on the junction of the community centre which is an ambulance route and already gets congested with traffic and parking.”

To view the plans, visit the South Downs planning search website, reference numbers SDNP/21/03598/OUT and SDNP/21/03649/FUL.