WINCHESTER planners have given permission for a city council scheme for social housing in Micheldever.

The city council planning committee has approved a council scheme for six homes on a council-owned but under-used garage block at Southbrook Cottages.

The council says this will help address a need for such homes in upmarket villages such as Micheldever.

But many local people opposed the plan with a petition of 12 names and three other objections. The parish council supports the scheme.

Objector Amanda Hall told the planning committee that the development would have a "huge knock-on effect on parking" and the application "would be more fitting for an urban area."

Mrs Hall said a similar scheme in Barron Close in Micheldever went not to people with local connections but to "people who could afford them".

She said social housing should be developed "realistically and not idealistically" and a private scheme on this site would have been thrown out.

The scheme has only six parking spaces but a planning application for another 13 spaces nearby is in the pipeline, the committee heard.

Cllr Caroline Horrill, leader of the Conservative group on the city council and also the local councillor, disputed the claim about Barron Close, saying the residents included the village postman and a local farmer.

She said using council-owned land was an excellent use of resources.

The council waiting list has demand from 12 households for homes in the village; with 12 needing one-bed property and five needing two.

Paul Phasey, of Winchester-based Architecture PLB, said the houses would be zero-carbon on the German Passivhaus design with photo voltaic cells and EV charging points. They would be even by carbon-negative.

The committee voted to unanimously approve the proposal.