A government planning inspector has allowed outline permission for 89 homes to be built on farmland between Station Road and Saltmarsh Lane on Hayling Island, overturning a decision by Havant Borough Council.

Hayling Island Builders Ltd had applied to Havant Council to build 29 homes on arable land north of Oysters, Station Road, and another 60 homes on a field south of Saltmarsh Lane.

The western boundary of both sites run alongside the Hayling Billy Trail.

In 2025 Havant’s planning department refused permission citing flood risks, impact on biodiversity, design and character, as well as a lack of legal agreements for, among other things, affordable housing.

However, since Havant refused permission a new national planning policy has been published and a recent appeal decision allowed a much larger housing development to go ahead at Rook Farm.

These changes had a bearing on the appeal cases which the applicant brought and as a result Havant was not able to sustain some of its reasons for refusing permission for the 89 homes.

During the course of the appeal process Havant worked with the applicant to agree a number of “planning conditions” and “legal undertakings” and as a result decided not to defend the reasons it gave for refusing planning permission for the two schemes.

Residents groups opposed the applications raising concerns about additional motor traffic, especially congestion on the single road on and off the island at Langstone Bridge.

However, in a decision published today, planning inspector H Nicholls dismissed these concerns, saying: “The increase in traffic generated by the schemes, even taken in combination with the Rook Farm scheme, would not reach the [National Planning Policy] Framework’s threshold of a severe adverse impact on the traffic network.”

The inspector also dismissed concerns about flood risk, stating that these could be mitigated through planning conditions imposed on the applicant.

“None of the issues raised by interested parties indicate that planning permission should be refused for either or both schemes,” concluded Nicholls.

Discussions between the applicant and the council and a legal agreement will secure a minimum of 30 per cent affordable housing across the two sites.

Subsequent planning applications will need to be submitted with full details of each scheme.

Planning Inspectorate: appeal decisions.