A CONTROVERSIAL scheme to build more than a dozen homes on a former gravel pit will be debated by councillors next week.

The 16-home scheme at Belbins near Romsey has attracted widespread opposition from local residents in the area.

But Test Valley planning officers are recommending that Lindsay Marshall’s application is given the green light because of a shortage of land available to meet housing stock demands over the next five years.

They also claim the Wrens Corner site of Cupernham Lane is a “sustainable” location.

Earlier this year, the landowner sparked fury after the site, which was one of few known breeding grounds for nightingales in the Romsey area, was bulldozed to make way for the proposed housing.

Planning officials also add there is a need for more affordable homes in the area.

There is also a preservation order on a group of trees on the site which was cleared of much of the vegetation before the planning application was submitted to the council Test Valley Borough Council.

Objectors to the scheme include Romsey and District Society’s natural environment sub-committee which states the site is outside the settlement boundary and points out there is “no overriding gain” to be had from the proposed development.

“There is no wildlife interest at the site because the owner has cynically destroyed the entire habitat prior to the survey being conducted and it is one of few remaining sites for nightingales in the Test Valley.

"If the scrub was regrown there is every chance of the nightingales returning to breed,” says RDS’s natural environment committee.

Seven letters objecting to the proposals have been received by planners including concerns about the loss of important woodland and wildlife habitat – especially nightingales. There are also worries about access to the site because it is opposite Belbins Business Park.

Residents are also concerned about the potential for noise from traffic and the lack of public transport to the site.

Conservationist Andy Lester who challenged the landowner when he cleared the two-acre site of scrub before seeking planning permission, said: “If it goes through I will be deeply disappointed. It will send the wrong message out to every unscrupulous developer-that it is OK to use underhand tactics to get what you want.

"It would also be an insult to those developers out there who have worked tirelessly to involve the community in the decision making process.”

An earlier scheme to build 18 homes on the site was rejected in January this year because the applicant had not demonstrated the site was big enough to accommodate all that amount number of homes without having a detrimental impact on the land.

Test Valley’s southern area planning committee will debate the proposals on Tuesday at Crosfield Hall.