IT SPARKED one of the biggest planning battles ever seen in a Hampshire town.

Hundreds of people lodged objections after proposals to build a fast-food centre next to the Rushington roundabout in Totton were unveiled in 2013.

The multi-million-pound scheme, which would have created 65 jobs, included drive-thru restaurants for KFC and Costa Coffee.

But campaigners claimed that traffic entering and leaving the site would endanger other road users, plus pupils walking to and from nearby Hounsdown School.

New Forest District Council rejected the application in 2014 - only to see its decision overturned on appeal.

The proposal stalled in 2015 after one of the retailers pulled out for reasons that were never made public. Now the former Ridgeway Cars site has been acquired by another car sales company, Arnold Clark, in a move that appears to have finally killed off the controversial scheme.

The latest developments have been welcomed by Totton councillor David Harrison, a fierce critic of the previous plan for the land.

He said: “The vast majority of local people are very relieved that this appears to put an end to the threat of fast-food outlets being located at this busy roundabout.

“The government-appointed planning inspector who overturned the council’s decision didn’t seem to understand the highway safety fears associated with such heavy traffic movements.

“The use of this site by Arnold Clark is going to be broadly the same as its former usage by Ridgeway Cars.

“It just goes to show - if the community and its representatives are resilient enough, we can sometimes get what we want.”

Totton residents fought a long-running campaign against the proposed fast-food centre, claiming it would cause a spate of accidents on the roundabout as well as generating huge amounts of litter. Objectors included Hounsdown School in nearby Jacobs Gutter Lane.

In a letter to the council, head teacher Julie Turvey said the site was next to what she described as a busy and dangerous road.

She added: “In the past two years two students from Hounsdown School have been knocked down, one while using a pedestrian crossing close to the roundabout. These accidents were very serious and one student was lucky to survive.”

But highway bosses at Hampshire County Council raised no objection, claiming the fast food centre would cause only a “relatively small” increase in traffic. Campaigners continued to criticise the scheme after it was approved on appeal.

They complained that the planning inspector had ignored the opinion of democratically-elected councillors and the views of more than 400 objectors.

An Arnold Clark spokesman was unavailable for comment.