Greggs approved for vacant unit at Locks Heath Centre

8 September 2026

Greggs is to take a vacant unit under the clock tower at Locks Heath Shopping Village after Fareham Borough Council approved the shopfront and rear plant. The bakery will occupy Unit 20 in the commercial heart of the centre, which already mixes grocery, food and local services around a courtyard car park.

Plans cover a new shopfront and a ventilation plant at the back of the unit. Two letters of concern objected that the proposed signage would sit awkwardly against neighbouring fascias. Officers accepted later drawings that bring the frontage and advert into line with the rest of the parade.

No opening date has been published. Proposed hours are 6am to 7pm Monday to Saturday and 7.30am to 4.30pm on Sunday.

The unit is empty now. The centre has been without a dedicated bakery since Soothills closed on 3 February 2024 after three decades at the village, citing personal and business reasons and pointing customers to its remaining shops in Fareham and Portchester. Waitrose, Iceland and Costa already trade on the same courtyard.

A separate Greggs counter continues at the Asda Express on Bridge Road in Park Gate, a short drive away, but that site sits inside a petrol station rather than among the Centre Way shops.

The Daily Echo first reported the decision. Greggs has been opening most of its 2026 shops in petrol stations, retail parks and other off-high-street sites, yet Locks Heath Centre is a conventional district-centre unit of the sort the village lost when Soothills left.

Until the company names a first trading day, the permission is the firm fact: Unit 20 can become a Greggs, and the drawings now match the parade they will sit in.