THEY are set to protest against plans that would change the face of their community forever.

Campaigners will march through the countryside this weekend to show their anger over proposals for nearly 4,000 homes and a new road on their doorstep.

The village of Bishopstoke, near Eastleigh, is set to become the latest battleground as Eastleigh Borough Council bids to meet its housing targets.

The plan for 3,700 homes north of Bishopstoke is just one of the options residents in the borough of Eastleigh are being asked to consider as part of a consultation which looks at building as many as 20,000 homes up to 2036.

But the community of Bishopstoke has mobilised to protect itself.

Stoke Residents’ Association is leading an ongoing Don’t Choke Bishopstoke campaign and wants residents to join a protest march against the plans.

It will follow the route of the proposed new road, from the end of Stoke Park Road, Bishopstoke, to the Fox and Hounds pub in Winchester Road, Fair Oak.

Marchers will meet tomorrow at 10.30am.

Chairman David Lovegrove says that if this option were to go ahead, including a North Bishopstoke bypass between Allbrook and Fair Oak, he believes the villages of Bishopstoke, Fair Oak and Colden Common would effectively be merged.

“The road acts as a catalyst for more housing because you have sorted the infrastructure,” he said.

Even with a bypass, he said a lot of the traffic from the new houses would still end on Bishopstoke Road to get to the centre of Eastleigh, causing congestion on an already busy road.

Mr Lovegrove said he understood developers had already spoken to landowners in the area and feared it would be a “done deal” because agreements would already be in place to put before the council, making it difficult to refuse.

“It’s a dreadful loss of countryside which once it’s gone it’s gone forever,” he said.

Mr Lovegrove also highlighted what he sees as a lack of information provided to the public on the plans, with no leaflet drop to people’s doors, saying many residents he had spoken to were unaware of the plans.

Mr Lovegrove said Stoke Residents’ Association had now come up with an alternative deliverable option for borough-wide development which would meet the council’s housing requirements.

The plan, details of which he would not reveal, will be put to councillors shortly, he added, and said it would avoid destroying Hampshire downland bordering the Itchen Valley and the merging of the Bishopstoke, Fair Oak and Colden Common.

The Daily Echo understands that advanced warning of the upcoming consultation did appear in the Eastleigh Borough newsletter delivered to all households late last year, but this was a preview and did not contain information on the exhibitions.

Letters and emails also went to 4,000 people who have previously commented on the local plan process.

Daily Echo:

IT IS a blueprint for future housing that some residents fear could pit communities against each other.

Eastleigh Borough Council’s plans to tackle future housing need have certainly provoked debate in towns and villages across the borough.

For the past two weeks residents have been learning more about plans that could see their communities expand and giving their views.

Organisers estimate more than 1,000 people have attended the series of six exhibitions held at locations across the borough.

The council is looking at building as many as 20,000 homes in the borough up to 2036 - and residents have just weeks left to have their say.

With 10,000 homes either given planning approval or already built that leaves a shortfall of between 4,000 and 10,000 homes, which the council acknowledges will have to be built mainly on greenfield areas.

The public has been given a range of eight options to consider. These have already raised fears among communities of increased traffic without the infrastructure to cope and the loss of countryside.

One option is expanding current urban areas, which could provide up to 5,000 homes.

The council is looking at developing Bishopstoke to the south and Horton Heath to the west to provide 2,300 homes.

Another option is expanding Fair Oak and Bishopstoke to the north and north-east and development in Allbrook, which could provide 3,700 homes, or Fair Oak to the east and north to provide 2,500 homes.

Options include extending West End to the north of the M27 just south of Itchen Valley Country Park in some of the same area where the council had once proposed building 1,400 homes as part of a wider development at Allington Lane.

This was previously rejected in favour of the scheme at Boorley Green, near Botley under the failed previous plan. It could now provide 2,250 homes.

Another proposed site would extend Hedge End to the north-east and Botley to the north, creating 1,300 homes and includes a Botley bypass.

Daily Echo:

The council is considering redevelopment of Eastleigh Riverside – land north of Southampton Airport including the former railway works - providing 200 homes as well as employment land. This would include the much talked of Chickenhall Link Road, a direct link from the area to the M27.

Finally, a possible 600 homes could go on Hamble Airfield, a controversial site included in the county council’s gravel extraction plans.

Key concerns raised at the recent exhibitions have been around traffic, school places and health resources, but also flooding, sewage and loss of countryside gaps between communities.

But at each exhibition at the forefront of people’s minds is also how the plans affect their community, with plenty of people offering their views at the final exhibition in Hedge End.

Debbie Dyke, 51, of Stowe Close, Botley, said: “Our worry is it’s going to merge Hedge End and Botley and they’ll be no gap between.”

Judi Maddison, 50 , of Arthurs Gardens, Hedge End, said the council needed to think about infrastructure.

“Junction 7 can’t take any more traffic trying to get onto the motorway. If they’re all ending up in the same place that’s a big issue,” she said.

Eastleigh council leader Keith House has said the council needs to meet the demands of the population, provide infrastructure, preserve gaps between communities and plan for housing growth under national planning policy.

Residents have until 5pm on February 17 to comment.

Daily Echo:

SANDRA Aveyard, pictured above, has taken to the streets of Botley delivering information about the consultation through people’s letterboxes.

The 67-year-old, of Botley, is concerned about one option to extend Hedge End and Botley to the north, which would involve a bypass around Botley, but more so with another option in which the council proposes to extend existing communities across the borough.

She said : “They won’t be putting in any more infrastructure in place because it’s going to be an extension of what’s already agreed.

“I’m very concerned about the whole thing.”

Sandra said she believed after plans for 1,400 homes at near Boorley Green were approved and further homes were allowed on appeal off Sovereign Drive that Botley had taken its fair share of development already.

She believes further development there will take away the green spaces left and cause further traffic.

“There will be different areas putting forward their reasons,” she said.

“People will concentrate on what’s in their backyard.”

She said that communities could end up pitted against each other.

“There’s got to be a sacrificial lamb and none of us want it to be us.”