ONE OF the region’s most interesting housing projects takes another step towards reality, as this paper reports today.

The Welborne project outside Fareham offers to provide some 6,000 new homes. But the development appears to offer more than just homes – a community crafted around green credentials.

Fareham Borough Council is putting the proposals on show to garner reaction before a public inquiry into the project in the summer.

There is likely to be lively debate on the issue, such is the norm for any major development today. This is how it should be in a society that values the opinions of residents and communities.

The debate over the Welborne project comes at a time when there is much discussion over how Britain is to provide more homes if we are to ease the housing crisis and stabilise booming house prices that threaten the recovery from economic woes.

It will be for local residents and a public inquiry to decide if the project gets the final go-ahead and provides much-needed properties. And even if the green light is given, and after such a long debate, it will still leave the region needing many, many more such projects.