A DECISION on a major development at Winchester College is due to be made today.

The school have submitted plans for an upgraded sports centre, pavilion and design technology building on the Southern Campus.

The plans, which would see a new sports hall, swimming pool and fitness centre, would also involve an access entrance on Norman Road and more than 100 new parking spaces.

The scheme has the support of preservation watchdogs City of Winchester Trust, but has garnered more than 30 objections.

In March, fears were raised by residents who said there would be noise and light pollution, increased traffic and the removal of parking bays on surrounding roads.

Amended plans were submitted by the College in July which included moving the location of a support services building further away from the boundary with St Cross Road and amended landscaping to break up the views of the car park and buildings for residents.

Rosy Blockley of Norman Road previously told the Chronicle it would bring, "chaos" to her street for two to three years during the construction and once the access entrance was being used by sports coaches and delivery vehicles.

She added in her objection: " Parking in Winchester is already a nightmare, and to take away yet more precious parking spaces from local residents as well as shoppers and walkers is absolutely not on."

David Marchant of St Cross Road, said in his objection: "The location of the Support Services buildings and the new car park is ill conceived and completely inappropriate, especially when one considers the other land that the College owns where they could be located.

"We do not oppose the redevelopment of the sports hall and facilities. It is the insensitive plans for the resisting of the support services building and car park that we must object to and resist."

The College's Campus Conservation and Development Framework published in 2010 identified the site as the least constrained and most suitable for redevelopment.

In a statement, the College said: "The College is very aware of the importance of the wider campus as an integral part of Winchester’s historic fabric and heritage.

"The redevelopment will replace decaying and inefficient buildings built in the 1960s, with modern, environmentally-efficient buildings. Traffic volumes in and out of the site, both vehicular and pedestrian, will therefore remain much the same."