A KEY vote on plans to build thousands of homes in the Eastleigh borough will be made tonight, despite protesters claiming there is not enough evidence about the impact on environment and traffic.

Hundreds of residents are expected to pack the Ballroom at the Ageas Bowl at 7pm when Eastleigh councillors are expected to vote on the Local Plan that includes proposals for more than 5,000 new homes near ancient woodland.

This comes after civic chiefs have been told that they have ten weeks to explain why they do not have a Local Plan on housing, or face the government stepping in to do it for them.

A Local Plan is a long-term blueprint for future housing developments which guides decisions on planning applications.

Eastleigh Borough Council’s target was to deliver 16,250 homes by 2036, but a previous Local Plan for 2011-2036 was thrown out by a government inspector in 2014.

Last July councillors indicated the area to the north and east of Bishopstoke and Fair Oak as the preferred location for a new development which could see 5,200 new homes, shops, schools, open spaces and a new access road north of Allbrook, Bishopstoke and Fair Oak.

But while council leader Keith House said the council is satisfied that it has the evidence to support a decision, the action group Action against Destructive Development Eastleigh (ADD) and Cllr Judith Grajewski, leader of the Conservative Group, say there is not enough evidence for a decision to be made.

Cllr Grajewski said: “The evidence isn’t there and without the evidence you can’t actually make a decision.”

But Cllr House said: “The council is satisfied that it has the evidence to support a decision. Some studies have yet to finalise reports but the direction of travel on these supports the recommendation being put by professional staff to the council. We do not anticipate the need for further details to come back to council.”

Tonight councillors will be asked to delegate authority to the chief executive and the leader of the council to complete and update the evidence base before the plan is sent to the Secretary of State.

Cllr House said this allows for late technical corrections to be made.

But Mark Baylis, 64, member of ADD, said: “Even if the plans are given the go-ahead they will have to go to a government inspector and I believe they’ll fail.”