RESIDENTS have been given a month to present their views about four options concerning a long-awaited playground.

For eight years, Winchester City Council has been trying to buy 0.58 hectares for the playground at Pondside, Bishop's Waltham on behalf of the parish council.

But the compulsory-purchase process has been slowed by an appeal, legal wrangles and spiralling costs.

Now it's going to cost £225,000 and the parish is counting on the city to pay part of it from a £261,000 open spaces fund.

At a special meeting on Tuesday night to discuss the project, parish chairman, Gideon Lake, admitted that some of the cost would fall on the taxpayer.

The meeting was told there were four options: carry on with the CPO; walk away from it, paying £50,000 in legal bills; strike a deal with the landowner to allow him to use an adjoining site to build 45 "affordable" homes or let him build eight private homes there.

Mr Lake is urging villagers to make their views known to the parish clerk before the end of February by writing to him at Bishop's Waltham Parish Council, Well House, 2, Brook Street, Bishop's Waltham, SO23 1AX, by e-mailing clerk.bwpc@bt connect.com;r or by ringing 01489 892383.

A working party will evaluate the suggestions and report back to full council for a final decision.