PLANS to build eight three-bedroom homes in Hamble's Satchell Lane have been given the planning green light by Eastleigh civic chiefs - despite fears over road safety.

The scheme for a mixture of terraced and semi-detached properties at 34-36 Satchell Lane only survived after chairman of the borough's Bursledon, Hamble and Hound Local Area Committee used his casting vote against sinking the plans.

Councillors had been told that 12 neighbours had objected to the scheme which would follow the demolition of existing industrial and storage buildings on grounds of loss of light, loss of privacy, traffic impact and highway safety concerns.

Councillor Bill Pepper said he was concerned about the additional accesses proposed and added: "I know there have been a couple of near misses and a couple of accidents. There could well be a problem with four accesses."

Principal planning officer Dawn Errington told the committee the council's engineers had said the accesses were safe and the authority would have difficulty defending a refusal on highway grounds.

Councillor Steve Holes added: "It may well be a dangerous bend and there is a record of traffic accidents in the vicinity, but I don't believe we could argue that these properties would be sufficient to increase the accident risk."

A move to refuse the application was defeated on chairman Councillor David Airey's casting vote and the committee then voted by three votes to two to grant permission.