Eastleigh borough and Hampshire county councils are set to go head-to-head over a planning blueprint for hundreds of new homes in the borough.

Early next year the two councils could end up fighting each another at a public inquiry over Eastleigh's draft local plan - a development brief for new housing until 2011.

But the opening salvos of the battle have already been fired.

Hampshire's executive member for the environment Councillor Keith Estlin has already slapped a "statement on non-conformity" on Eastleigh, saying the local plan doesn't fall in line with the county's own structure plan.

Hampshire says Eastleigh is 1,562 homes short of the number required for reserve housing and has not identified a major development area for 1,000 homes in the south-east of Eastleigh as the structure plan requires.

The county also says Eastleigh has failed to safeguard park-and-ride sites in the Windhover and Stoneham areas in contravention of the structure plan.

Cllr Estlin said: "It's important that sufficient housing sites are earmarked to meet government housing targets set out in regional planning guidance. Too few homes makes it difficult for young people to buy a property of their own."

He said he hoped many new homes could be built on urban sites across the county so that reserve greenfield sites did not need to be released.

But he added: "It is vital to have those in reserve in case urban building falls short of expectation - otherwise developers will press the government to allow them to build where we wouldn't want to see new housing."

But Eastleigh claims the county's plans for future housing will undermine the regeneration of the Eastleigh and Southampton areas.

Eastleigh head of planning policy and design Cliff Bowden said the borough council had made a conscious effort to provide for fewer extra homes than the county council expected.

"Far more housing has been built in the city of Southampton than anyone had predicted even three years ago. If the borough council ignores this and plans for yet more housing, it will undermine the regeneration of both Southampton and Eastleigh."

He said he also believed that to build significant numbers of homes in greenfield locations away from existing town centres would be wrong.

"The most sustainable locations in this area at this time are Southampton and Eastleigh, where a whole range of facilities are accessible to residents."

Turning to the county's promotion of park-and-ride sites at Stoneham and Windhover, Mr Bowden said: "These are particularly sensitive sites where very good justification would be needed to override the borough's strict policies to control development in the countryside."