CITY planners were accused of "riding roughshod" over local democracy as they approved a green field housing scheme widely opposed by residents.

Twenty-five new homes are set to be built at Kings Worthy's Top Field after one of the village's own councillors defied the results of a public consultation.

Winchester City Council also approved largely popular proposals for 50 houses on Hinton Field, off Lovedon Lane.

Kings Worthy councillor Robert Johnston infuriated residents and fellow Liberal Democrats by casting the decisive vote in favour of Top Field on Thursday.

The council received 164 objections and a consultation in 2013 showed three quarters of residents opposed the project.

After the meeting Lib Dem councillor Jane Rutter told a member of the public that Cllr Johnston would not have been selected for next year's election were he not retiring.

Speaking in the stairwell of Winchester Guildhall, she said: "We wouldn't select him again, I'm afraid, on the basis of that."

Lib Dem councillor Jamie Scott and four Tories also backed the scheme, with Conservative Ernie Jeffs voting against.

Hampshire Chronicle:

Residents protest against development on Top Field in 2013

Planning committee heard how developer Drew Smith applied to build 25 discount homes on a hill in the west of the village.

An application for 50 houses was rejected in March but the firm returned with a bid to build exclusively affordable housing as a rural exception site.

It was approved due to increased demand for affordable housing in the area, with 115 locals in need and nearly 850 people listing it as a preferred destination on council waiting lists.

Conservative councillor David McLean said: "We need affordable housing now. It's not as if all the open space is going to be lost. There will be an awful lot of space to be walking their pets."

But Cllr Rutter said letting Top Field to locals will be "meaningless" as homes vacated to move there would be open to the whole district.

She said: "Who now in the Worthys will ever take part in such a consultation again if we ride roughshod over their democratically expressed views this way?

"This scheme does not have [public] consensus and it will be imposed from above on an angry and disillusioned local community."

Hampshire Chronicle:

Cllr Jane Rutter addresses the meeting

Had Cllr Johnston voted against the scheme, it would have been scrapped. An abstention would have seen Tory committee chairman Cllr Laurence Ruffell make the casting vote in favour.

Cllr Johnston did not speak during the debate and was unavailable for comment on Friday.

Lovedon Lane emerged comfortably as the preferred site for houses during a public survey in 2013.

Mike Roberts, of developer HAB Housing, described the project as a "once in a generation opportunity" for new public facilities.

Eversley Park will double in size as part of the deal, with a new allotment, cycle rack, play area, orchard and car park. The land will be given to the parish council to protect it from future development.