PLANS to spend over £100,000 of one parish's money on a cycleway in the parish next door have been knocked off course.

Hampshire county councillors were asked to approve putting a £129,000 contribution from developers in Fawley towards a new cycle route to Hythe.

The money towards transportation schemes comes from developer J S Bloor (Newbury), building 48 private homes and 15 for rent on Fawley's Hardley Industrial Estate, close to the border with the parish of Hythe and Dibden.

Fawley's Hampshire county councillor, Alexis McEvoy, protested that most of the money would be spent outside her parish.

She told the county's roads and development sub-committee meeting: "The provision of a cycleway is an excellent idea, but the local need is for a cycleway to provide safe access from Hardley to the villages of Fawley, Calshot, Blackfield, Langley and Lepe - not to Hythe."

Her plea won support and instead of accepting a recommendation for the money to be spent on the route to Hythe, the committee agreed to spend it on "local schemes to be agreed by the county surveyor, committee chairman and the local member."