A HAMPSHIRE MP has urged civic chiefs to listen to residents and campaigners ahead of its meeting on the controversial delayed Local Plan. 

Eastleigh MP Mims Davies has written to the borough council calling on them to reject Options B and C of the emerging Local Plan.

Those options would see more than 6,000 houses and a new major road being built in the area north of Bishopstoke and Fair Oak, also impacting on villages south of Winchester.

The alternative plans, Options D and E, would see houses built on land between Allington Lane and Burnetts Lane, north of the M27.

The council's last Local Plan for 2011-2036 was thrown out by a government inspector in 2014. 

Speaking before the meeting, Ms Davies said: “Eastleigh Borough Council are letting development run riot in the area and residents know it and therefore should immediately exclude Options B and C from consideration so that we can rightly protect our much loved Stoke Park Woods from bulldozers.

“I have been campaigning alongside residents, activists and independent parish councillors for the Borough Council to get a grip on the dire planning situation and protect our green spaces and Ancient Woodland from the onslaught of hostile development.

“Eastleigh is fast becoming the wild west for developers and, as the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and many residents agree, Eastleigh Borough Council is letting down residents.”

A meeting tonight is expected to be packed at the Kings Community Church in Hedge End, with campaigners from Action Against Destructive Development Eastleigh (ADD) expected to attend.

Earlier this week, the group delivered a planning consultant's report to Eastleigh Borough Council ahead of its full cabinet meeting which urged councillors to recognise the report's conclusion that options D and E “are overwhelmingly the best suited to meet Eastleigh’s housing needs from a practical, environmental and traffic perspective."