IT is only right and proper that plans for major developments are scrutinised closely to ensure they offer the best possible outcomes for our communities.

So the Court of Appeal’s decision to grant campaigners fighting proposals for 1,400 homes in the countryside near Botley a judicial review, as reported on page 11 of today’s Daily Echo, is to be welcomed.

Even though the ruling has frustrated council leaders at least everyone will now know that all hoops have been jumped through if the homes are ever built.

Those who have fought the plans are understandably delighted – but there is another side to this story.

We desperately need new homes – and lots of them.

The challenge for planners is to provide them while doing the least damage possible to the way of life for which Hampshire is rightly cherished.

Whether Boorley Green will get 1,400 more homes is one for our learned friends to decide.

However, if they cannot go there, they will have to go somewhere else or we will never get to grips with this growing housing crisis.