A DEVELOPER is to make a final bid to build hundreds of new homes in the countryside.

Next week a government planning inspector will hear a plea for build 200 homes build in fields and farmland near Eastleigh.

The plans off Bubb Lane in West End have outraged residents They fear this countryside is the last gap separating Hedge End and West End.

Now a public enquiry will be opened to look at the plans.

Developers Gladman Developments unveiled the plans last year, asking Eastleigh Borough Council for permission to build on the site close to Wessex Vale Crematorium.

Residents and councillors raised concerns about traffic, road safety on Bubb Lane, air pollution, pressure on schools, the impact on wildlife and that it could join the communities together.

As reported by the Daily Echo, Hedge End Town Council and West End Parish Council both objected to the plans.

The councils said they felt the plans would “significantly diminish and urbanise the narrow and sensitive area of designated countryside and strategic gap between Hedge End and West End and erode the separate identities of these settlements” and expressed concern for the strain on infrastructure the development would cause.

They also said the proposals would have an “adverse impact on the intrinsic character of the landscape and the area.”

Now the developers have urged the councils to reconsider its plans.

It comes just two months after the Planning Inspectorate dismissed a previous appeal by Gladman Developments against the council’s refusal of a previous planning application on the same site.

The previous plans, which were refused last year, could have seen 328 homes and a doctors’ surgery built on the same area of countryside which is designed to prevent the borough communities merging with Southampton.

Hedge End Town councillor Cynthia Garton said: “I’m not surprised they’re appealing but the only thing that has changed is that they are proposing less houses.

"That field has become an island and it is the only thing separating West End and Hedge End, it’s just not a sustainable idea to build there and I am sure residents will be out once again to object the appeal like they did the last time.”

West End resident Marika Baldwin urged residents to go along to the meeting, saying that she believes the land being proposed is a floodplain.

She said: "I'm dreading it, if they get away with building 200 houses it will only be a matter of time before they want to build another 200.

"That land is not made for houses when there is heavy rainfall there is water gushing down the streets.

"We must all stand together here and make sure it doesn't happen once again."

Gladman Developments delined to comment.

The public inquiry into the plans will be held at the Ageas Bowl on Tuesday from 7pm.

Anyone who is unable to attend the meeting can still comment at acp.planninginspectorate.gov.uk or write to The Planning Inspectorate, Temple Quay House, 2 The Square, Bristol BS1 6PN quoting reference APP/W1715/W/16/3153928.

People must enclose three copies of their letter and they must be received before September 9.