A PACKAGE of road improvements to pave the way for a major housing development on Eastleigh's allotments has been given the green light.

County highways chiefs have approved street schemes that are crucial to plans for 432 homes on plots in the town's South Street and Chestnut Avenue area.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds will be spent by Eastleigh Borough Council on widening motorway access routes from junction 5 of the M27 and creating new junctions for roads leading from the housing site to Southampton Road.

Brand new junctions would be built at Cheriton Road, South Street and Arnold Road and existing junctions at Chestnut Avenue and York Road with Southampton Road would also be improved.

The plans will also see the council paying more than £1m to provide new cycle and pedestrian routes to and from the new site, including new safe routes from Monks Way to Barton Peveril College and Alderman Quilley School.

Eastleligh council chiefs are still awaiting the final go-ahead on the entire housing application from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Highways Agency.

Council leader Keith House said: "All we are waiting for now is the green light from the government and for them to confirm that they won't delay what is essential new housing in Eastleigh."

But allotment campaigners are not convinced that the approval will lead the way to a full go-ahead on the housing development itself.

Ted Ingram, treasurer of the Eastleigh and Bishopstoke Allotments Association, said: "We know we have a good case against the development and I don't think this means it will necessarily go ahead. We have more than just hopes that it won't. I don't think this is the end."