Neilcott appointed and plans lodged for an 800sqm centre off Henry Cort Drive. Decision due 1 October, but the council says completion is three years off.

Fareham Borough Council has lodged the planning application for a new Fareham Park Community Centre and named the firm that would build it. The application, reference P/26/0868/FP, was received and made valid on 6 August 2026 and carries a target decision date of 1 October 2026. It is listed as under consideration, with Peter Kneen as case officer.

The council announced on 10 August that it had appointed Neilcott Construction Ltd to deliver the scheme, and that architects Boyle & Summers, brought in by Neilcott to finalise the design, had submitted the application. The register lists the applicant as the council’s own leisure services department and Boyle & Summers as agent.

The site is Fareham Park Recreation Ground off Hillson Drive, PO15 6NA. The application describes a “community centre and petanque floodlights south of Henry Cort Drive to replace existing facilities to the north of Henry Cort Drive”, so the new building would go up on the opposite side of the road from the one it replaces.

What is proposed

The council says the new centre would provide more than 800 square metres of community space, around four times the size of the current building, with a main hall, a secondary hall, youth and pre-school spaces, a quiet and counselling room, a kitchen and social areas, external landscaping and a pétanque terrain. Air source heat pumps and solar panels are in the design. The existing centre was built in the early 1990s and is, on the council’s own account, the smallest community centre in the borough.

The timescale the press release does not mention

The council’s own Fareham Park project page is blunter than its announcement. It sets out three phases. Phase one, the accessible play area and multi-use social area, opened in September 2025. Phase two is the community centre and pétanque terrain, and the page says that because of the work needed on car parking, drainage and ecological improvements, “it is likely to be at least 3 years before the completion of Phase 2”. Phase three would see the ground occupied by the existing community centre re-purposed for affordable housing, and only once the new facilities are finished.

The money is not all in place either. The project page says £700,000 from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund has been allocated to deliver the masterplan and phase one, and that the council is “exploring options for more external funding” for the community centre, having taken on a bid writer to chase grants. The press release puts it differently, saying the first two phases have received a combined £750,000 from the same fund. Neither figure is presented as the cost of the building.

The three phases of the Fareham Park project Timeline showing phase one, the play area and multi-use social area, completed and opened September 2025; phase two, the new community centre and petanque terrain, with a planning application submitted 6 August 2026, a target decision date of 1 October 2026 and completion at least three years away; and phase three, affordable housing on the site of the existing community centre, which follows completion of phase two. One phase done, one at least three years away The council's three-phase plan for Fareham Park Recreation Ground, off Henry Cort Drive Phase 1 Play area and multi-use social area Opened Sept 2025 Phase 2 Community centre and pétanque terrain Application in 6 Aug 2026 Target decision 1 Oct 2026 "At least 3 years" to finish Phase 3 Affordable housing on the old centre's site After phase 2 completes Source: Fareham Borough Council, Fareham Park project page and press release of 10 August 2026; planning application P/26/0868/FP. Graphic by Fareham News
The council's own three phases for Fareham Park, with the dates it has published for each.

What it means for you

If you live in Fareham Park, this is the point at which you can say something that counts. The application is open and undecided, and the council has set itself a decision date of 1 October. Comments go through the case tracker record for P/26/0868/FP, where the plans and the case officer’s contact details are published. Parking, drainage and lighting are the practical points the council itself flags as difficult on this site, and they are the sort of detail a decision notice attaches conditions to.

If you use the current centre, nothing changes yet. The replacement is proposed on the south side of Henry Cort Drive, the existing building stays where it is during construction, and the council says the old site is only redeveloped once the new facilities are complete. On its own three-year estimate, that is not before 2029.

The affordable housing at the end of the chain matters beyond Fareham Park. The borough can currently demonstrate less than three years of housing land against a five-year requirement, which is the single number shaping what gets approved across Fareham right now.

Councillor Frair Burgess, the council’s executive member for leisure and community, said submitting the application was “an important step towards delivering a much-needed new community facility for Fareham Park”. Ciarán O’Leary, regional director for Neilcott, said the firm would look to engage local schools and colleges on training and employment during the build.