A "CRACKING" plan for 500 homes and employment facilities at Louisburg Barracks, in Bordon, plus a three-roundabout relief road, got the unanimous thumbs up from East Hampshire district councillors last Wednesday.

Although, at one point, it looked as if there might be a hitch because of worries over how much accommodation was being provided for the five species of bats on the site.

The plight of the bats and where they will be re-housed dominated a lot of the meeting, along with concerns about other wild-life on the site. But members heard there had been no objections from Natural England over plans to move the bats to replacement bunkers in two years; provide roosting in the roof space in Amherst House - the former camp commander's residence - and install 20 bat boxes in the area.

Louisburg is the next development of the Green Plan to develop Ministry of Defence land, submitted (with the earlier application to develop Quebec Barracks) before the Army leaves next year.

For full story, see this week's Bordon Herald.