PLANS to build luxury homes on a rural industrial estate would simply create a "ghetto of extremely wealthy people", according to a Winchester city councillor.

Labour group leader Patrick Davies attacked proposals to build six large houses on the site of the Old Park Wood Industrial Estate at Bishops Sutton, near Winchester.

The site has had a number of industrial uses and is currently rented by steel company Bramdean Structures Ltd which employs 36 people.

But a scheme to convert the use of the land was rejected by the city council's planning department at its meeting last Thursday.

Members decided that despite current heavy traffic movements from lorries, the proposals would result in a loss of rural employment opportunities and that the houses would be built in an area unrelated to the nearby villages of Bramdean or Bishops Sutton.

Mr Davies said: "It seems to me to be the worst possible solution of what would be importing a new estate of people who are almost certainly from other parts of the country and who would have no connection with the local community.

"It would be a ghetto of extremely wealthy people living in the middle of nowhere.

"As far as traffic movements are concerned I expect they would go from there to Winchester or Alton railway stations, to go to London."

Kris Mitra, an agent speaking on behalf of applicant David Docherty, said: "We have got the opportunity to redevelop the site with a scheme that you may or may not like.

"We can landscape the site and address the requirements of your landscape officers to make sure that it fits better in to the landscape."

Bishops Sutton Parish Council welcomed the proposals as it is concerned at the industrial use of the site and felt that owner-occupiers would have more of a vested interest in the community.