CONTROVERSIAL plans to build 1,650 homes on the former Vosper Thornycroft site in Southampton have attracted more than 1,000 objections.
Council planners revealed the figure as campaigners prepare to take to the street in protest at the proposed £500m development for the Woolston riverside.
Complaints It is thought to be one of the highest numbers of complaints the council has ever received about a planning application - only rivalled when Saints revealed plans for St Mary's Stadium.
The development, dubbed Centenary Quay, also includes a hotel, public plaza and a supermarket, and three waterfront apartment towers rising up to 25 storeys.
Hundreds of residents will parade through the city centre tomorrow afternoon before handing a detailed objection to the council's planning chief and new mayor, Councillor Brian Parnell.
Andrew Middleton, chairman of the development section of Woolston Community Association (WCA), which has spearheaded the campaign, said the chief objection was the number of homes.
"It is ridiculous to impose one of the highest housing densities in the world on a suburb like Woolston. It will ruin Woolston."
He added: "Residents feel they are about to be subjected to a social engineering experiment in high-density housing, for which there are few if any precedents."
The detailed objection says there are too few houses (just 148 are planned), that the proposed 1,400 parking spaces - less than one per home - are inadequate, there is too little green space, and there is a lack of infrastructure to cope with up to 4,000 new residents.
There are also concerns the development will bring traffic congestion.
Labour ward councillors have said they will back residents' objections.
But developer Crest Nicholson said proposed junction improvements, cycling and car-sharing schemes and a water taxi will address such problems.
They added that the mix and number of homes was in line with council policy.
They added that the Woolston community had been "instrumental" in informing its plans and that "extensive consultation" had been carried out with residents.
The developer said it had "endeavoured to work proactively alongside Woolston Community Association and other groups to address their concerns."
A council spokesman called the volume of objection letters "considerable" but said the vast majority were a standard response letter issued by the WCA.
US boat-builder Palmer Johnson has also submitted plans to create 800 jobs by building a manufacturing facility on the former VT site.
It has been backed by residents and business groups.
The march will take place tomorrow from the Cenotaph at 4pm. The deadline for objections is May 22.
