HOMELANDS, the outdoor music festival near Winchester, is set to stage its biggest event.

It has been given the go-ahead for 50,000 people to attend in May - a third more than the 38,000 permitted in recent years.

Members of Winchester City Council's licensing committee gave the London-based Mean Fiddler organisation permission to use land at Matterley Estate near Cheesefoot Head.

It will run from 1pm on Saturday, May 26, to 7am on Sunday, May 27. Last year's acts included the Chemical Brothers, Moby and Roni Size in 11 different tented arenas.

The smooth running of the festival, which started as Creamfields in 1998, has reduced opposition. There were eight complaints about noise in last year compared with 70 in 1999.

But many local people are still unhappy about the impact of the festival.

Itchen Valley Parish Council has objected. Its chairman Alison Matthews said: "We do not believe that it is reasonable to expect the locality to cope with the influx of another 12,000 people and related traffic."

Mark Dillon, chairman of the Chilcomb Parish Meeting said: "There is concern that the growth of this event could overwhelm local amenities and public services and act as a magnet to the exploitative criminal fraternity, particularly drug dealers, and drain the public purse. This is not simple nimbyism."

The police have not objected to the event but have expressed concern about the tent capacity which was pushed to the limit last May by the bad weather.

The city council has imposed tight controls on the event to minimise disruption. It in-cludes an event management plan and traffic management plan. More parking spaces particularly for coaches, will be provided as will another entry point to the event off the A31. More stewards will be employed and more "warm rooms" set aside for people to recover.