ROMSEY MP Sandra Gidley joined councillors and more than 100 residents to hear an impassioned plea not to allow further expansion of Chilworth Science Park.

Members of the Chilworth Residents Committee, which was set up in November, in a bid to halt the expansion of the park, held a public meeting in the village hall to urge Test Valley Borough councillors to reject applications for two new buildings.

The meeting followed an information day held by one of the applicants, fibre-optic cable manufacturer Fibercore, on Saturday, at the Southampton University-owned centre for hi-tech research and development.

The committee believes one of the applications could see a factory releasing potentially-toxic chemicals, while another would see an extra 200 people travelling daily into the park along the busy A27.

Residents heard that a new roundabout may have to be built outside the park to cope, while one of the two applications - one is from Fibercore, the other is from Photronics - would see the destruction of 65 ancient lime trees.

Committee chairwoman Alison Finlay said the borough council was "misled" over the size of a laboratory for German pharmaceutical company Merck at the park, which turned out to be four storeys instead of two.

She added: "Don't let the planners be misled again. These two applications are for factories - one using toxic chemicals and the other containing a large number of workers, with the destruction of the countryside which that entails."

The committee stressed that there were several more suitable sites for development in Test Valley, and accused Fibercore of choosing Chilworth simply because of its green environment.

Residents heard about a second threat to the village, with the intention of local landowner Willis Fleming Enterprises to sell off vast areas of woodland for development, including land to the science park.

After the meeting, Mrs Gidley, pictured, said: "There are a lot of questions that need answering before the application is decided. There are concerns, and we will have to see what the other side's argument is, to establish how many of them can be addressed."

Dr Chris Emslie, a Chilworth resident and the managing director of Fibercore Ltd, said: "I think if the members of the committee had taken the time to read the information we presented to them on Saturday, they would not have come out with the statements that they have tonight."