CAMPAIGNERS were today set for a High Court battle with their local council over hundreds of homes planned for the Hampshire countryside.

Botley Parish Action Group (BPAG) was taking its fight against 1,400 homes on land at Boorley Green, near Botley, back to a top judge for judicial review today.

Botley Parish Council has applied to join the legal action alongside BPAG.

A previous application for judicial review was rejected by a High Court judge, but a subsequent appeal in September proved successful.

Legal representatives from both sides will state their cases in the one-day hearing.

The plans for 1,400 homes were given the go-ahead by Eastleigh councillors last year despite a mass rally through the streets of Botley.

BPAG fears the homes would swamp Boorley Green, change the face of Botley and increase traffic with no infrastructure to cope.

It also argues that other sites are more sustainable.

Campaigners hope that the site can instead be considered alongside others by an independent inspector in his upcoming examination of the Eastleigh Local Plan, a blueprint of how housing is to be used in the borough up to 2029.

Eastleigh council leader Keith House has argued the development would bring more facilities to Boorley Green and help protect other countryside areas.

He has previously said that the judicial review would create additional delay but the council was confident the original decision would be upheld.

BPAG says 96 per cent of residents responding to its survey did not want these extra services at the cost of the houses.

The court hearing comes as further plans were revealed by developers to build up to 680 homes, a new primary school and a shopping precinct near Boorley Green regardless of the outcome.

Rosemary Nimmo, secretary of BPAG, said: “We have been working towards this for a long time now and we’re delighted that we have actually got this far, but this is the crucial point.”

Colin Mercer, chairman of Botley Parish Council, said of the hearing: “I believe our cause is just.

“We believe that it’s fundamentally wrong that Eastleigh Borough Council is judge, jury and executioner of planning things and it’s far better considered by an independent review where people like ourselves can make our representations.”