A CONTROVERSIAL plan to turn a former Old Basing hardware store into a Chinese takeaway has still to be decided.

Members of Basingstoke council's development control comittee met on Wednesday to discuss planning officers' recommendation to allow the conversion of the former Powells shop in Belle Vue Road.

Two petitions totalling more than 500 signatures had been submitted against the application, with residents complaining that it could generate noise, litter and traffic.

Doug Clark, chairman of Old Basing Parish Council, said they were strongly against the plans, adding the village was already used as a rat run between the A30 and the A33 and that a takeaway could compound the problem.

Cllr Clark said: "If you have traffic thundering past your house all day long and all night long, it is really not funny."

He added that customers at a busy takeaway could disturb the peace of the area, saying: "Eleven o'clock at night is not the right time to have a lot of noise."

Paul Gray, who runs the newsagent's next door and lives above the shop, said a late-opening takeaway could encourage other businesses in the area to extend their hours.

He added: "We will get youngsters coming down for chips and beer, and seeing as it is pensioners who live in the area, that would not be right."

However, Paul Chong, speaking on behalf of the applicant Mr Kap Hing Lau, said the nearest residential properties were "quite a way away".

In response to projected traffic estimates, he added: "Between 8pm and 9pm, I think that an average traffic level of three vehicles per minute is not that bad."

Officers recommended the plan be approved on the grounds that it would "positively contribute to the diversification of the area", and said environmental health officers did not object to the plans as long as the takeaway used an appropriate flue.

A suggestion to allow the application but with shorter hours was rejected by members. But a vote on whether or not to grant planning permission for the original proposal tied - with six votes for and six against.

Alison Latimer, legal advisor to the committee, said that since a decision had not been reached, the matter would go back to the committee at a later date after officers had discussed the issue with the applicant.