Fawley power station site: 'New town' plan submitted Published duration 7 May 2019

image copyright Fawley Waterside image caption The £1bn scheme would include 1,500 homes

Plans have been submitted to build a new town on the site of a former power station.

The £1bn Fawley Waterside scheme in Hampshire would incorporate 1,500 homes and 2,000 jobs, developers said.

Developers said the station's landmark 650ft (198m) chimney would be demolished in 2020.

image caption The station's landmark chimney is set to be demolished

Developer and site owner Fawley Waterside Ltd said there was "disappointment in the local community" about the prospective loss of the chimney, which it said was "one of the largest buildings in Britain".

Chief executive Aldred Drummond said: "I'm a keen sailor so I see it from wherever I am in the Solent so despite its ugliness it has an obvious attraction.

"But it was a big, polluting building. The reason this power station was closed down was because of its pollution so we have to remember that."

The plans, lodged with New Forest District Council, include a replacement 330ft (100m) tower that would "act as a navigational aid for sailors".

image caption Developer Aldred Drummond said the chimney had been a "big, polluting building"

A dock, boat stack and canal would enable jobs to be created in the marine sector as well as in "digital industries", the developer said.

The power station's turbine hall basement would be used to park 2,000 cars.

The developer said there would be "limited widening" and roundabout improvements on the nearby A326, following "understandable local concern" about extra traffic.

Fawley Power Station 1971 Commissioned on the western shore of Southampton Water 2,000 megawatt oil-fired power station fuelled by nearby Esso refinery

198 metre-high chimney dominates the Solent sykline

1,100 miles of cable were laid within the power station

One million homes were powered by Fawley

Fawley Waterside Ltd, acting through investment firm Long Harbour, bought the 300-acre site for £25m in 2015.

The Drummond family owns the Cadland Estate which surrounds the site.

Building work is scheduled to begin in 2021 and the first homes would be available two years later.