New supermarket and sports hub coming to major development site at Deepcut
The Deepcut estate will get a new Asda and sports hub after plans were signed off for a store and leisure facilities at the major development site.
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.
Among the initial outline permission was a large 2,000sqm supermarket but the council was unable to find any retailer willing to take on a site of that scale saying that 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 three quarters of the size of the Sainsbury’s Local in Heatherside after being granted permission at the Thursday, March 21 committee meeting.
The same meeting also agreed to leisure facilities that would be “for Deepcut but for the benefit of the community as a whole”.
The former Princess Royal Barracks site occupies about 114 hectares and is one of the key development areas in Surrey Heath.
To give the new residents a greater sense of community, the council’s planning committee has agreed to a new sports hub which officers described as being “important component parts of the community, public open and recreational space provision required to serve the Mindenhurst development and the wider community.”
The sports hub will take up seven hectares of land and includes pitches, a multi-use games area, playgrounds, and an outdoor gym. The council also wants to build a pavilion with changing areas, showers and kitchen.
Councillor Kevin Thompson (Lightwater, LD) described the hub as a “very extensive set of facilities for the area”, and asked if the site was there 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 Midenhurst development, that’s what its 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 were providing, or that we will be providing.
“In the first instance this is for Deepcut but I think as time goes by, its 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.