City objects to 350-home scheme in green gap (From Daily Echo)

City objects to 350-home scheme in green gap

12:09pm Friday 23rd October 2009 in Search

SOUTHAMPTON councillors are joining objections to controversial plans to carpet countryside on the border of the city with 350 new homes.

The trustees of the Barker Mill Estate want to build a 27-acre housing estate off Redbridge Lane, Nursling.

They claim the development will support new places in nearby schools, improvements to the village hall and playing pitches, and help Test Valley Borough Council hit its housing targets.

But city councillors have now joined villagers in objecting to the application.

Labour councillor, Peter Marsh Jenks, who represent Redbridge, warned: “The development would place extra pressure on Southampton amenities and schools, which, I assume, Test Valley Borough Council does not intend to fund.

“I do not see why Redbridge residents should suffer the consequences of over-development in another council’s area.”

Conservative councillor and parliamentary candidate for the west of the city, Jeremy Moulton, added: “The land is clearly defined as part of the local gap and therefore it is not appropriate for housing to go here.

“Furthermore the proposed development will put considerable strain on Redbridge Lane, which is a very narrow country road “Bad developments like this are being brought forward because of Labour’s ridiculous centrally-imposed housing targets.”

It comes as a new Ordnance Survey head office is being built nearby as part of an emerging business park alongside the M271 Nursling parish councillor, Nigel Anderdon, said villagers feared they will overrun by traffic and will lose their identity. “The people like to have a village atmosphere and to fell they are living in the countryside not a city,” he said.

The development would include 297 houses and 53 flats. Forty per cent would be “affordable” housing.

The site is designated as countryside and a “local gap” between Nursling and Southampton in the adopted Test Valley Borough Local Plan 2006. Cllr Anderdon and fellow ward councillor, Phil Bundy, are fighting proposals to delete the “local gap” in a forthcoming development plan.

Test Valley borough councillors have already rejected the need for an environmental impact assessment.

Lisa Jackson, of planning agents, Turley Associates, said it had produced an eco friendly scheme which met the council’s aspirations for the area.

“We have aimed to produce an exemplary scheme that raises the standard of design in the area and will provide existing and future residents with high quality open spaces and easy access to local facilities.

“A decision is expected before the end of the year and we believe scheme this will enable Test Valley Borough Council to move towards meeting housing targets.”