A DECISION on a controversial development on the edge of Romsey featuring hundreds of homes and a sports complex will be made tomorrow night.

Councillors are recommended to give permission to 275 homes at the Ganger Farm site at Woodley.

If given the green light, the scheme would bring a “new community sports hub” with eight sports pitches, including two allweather surfaces, and a pavilion with changing facilities. Community allotments are also part of the plan for the land off Jermyns Lane and Braishfield Road.

The application comes from Barratt and David Wilson Homes after two rounds of public consultation last year.

Romsey Rugby Club and Romsey Hockey Club have both said they would be keen to make their homes at the new sports centre.

The land, currently a pickyour- own farm, had been earmarked for use as a sports ground by Test Valley Borough Council in its planning, but funding has never been available.

The application has received a mixture of blessing and condemnation from the public and from organisations in the area.

It has been criticised by those who want to see the neighbouring Sir Harold Hillier Gardens protected from the development.

Test Valley Borough Council’s leisure department beleve it will reduce the “undersupply” of both adult rugby and junior grass football pitches in the area. But it’s housing department said that it’s provision of 20 per cent affordable housing falls far short of the 40 per cent required.

The developers say they have received “positive feedback”.

A spokesman for Romsey Ramblers said: “[We] object to this application. It is an unnecessary, unwelcome intrusion into the countryside and the ‘green lung’ around Romsey. It is an overdense overdevelopment in an attempt to crowd more dwellings into insufficient space, worsened by the sweetener of space for sports facilities.”

Elizabeth Pratt, chair of the natural environment committee, Romsey and District Society, added: “We question whether the sports pitches are necessary at all. There are a number of pitches at Hunts Farm which are underutilised; frequently the gate is locked and the pitches unused at weekends.”