THE public will get a final chance to put their case over controversial plans to build thousands of homes near a Hampshire town forward.

An independent planning inspector will be examining plans for the new community of Welborne to the north of Fareham at Fareham’s civic offices between October 14 and October 23, after they were submitted to Government last month.

All of the representations that were made during the recent consultation on the Welborne Plan are being considered by the inspector.

He will also invite some of those people and groups who indicated that they wanted to participate at the hearing sessions to talk about specific issues in more detail.

Following any follow-up consultation that may take place, the inspector is expected to prepare his final report for early 2015 which will set out whether he finds the Welborne Plan sound.

If found sound, then the council can adopt it as part of the council’s Local Plan and use it to assess future planning applications.