SCORES of people attended a public meeting to hear about plans for a redundant army base on the edge of Winchester.

Around 140 people packed into Badger Farm Community Centre on Monday for the meeting about Bushfield Camp.

The landowner, the Church Commissioners, is proposing a ‘high-quality employment campus’ on the 15-hectare former military parade ground, off Badger Farm Road, which has been disused since the 1970s.

The commissioners say that most of the site, the area south of Whiteshute Ridge, will be managed to improve its wildlife value, becoming a new country park.

Badger Farm Road would be widened and the Badger Farm roundabout would be modified.

The Church Commissioners has appointed Knight Frank to market the site and find a development partner.

Local city councillor Brian Laming said: “The commissioners said they are going out to market, to see if any developer wants the site. There are a lot of promises to talk to local people but it won’t go ahead unless it is financially viable.

“People are worried about the extra traffic generated and the damage to the local ecology.”

For decades the commissioners have attempted the develop the area for housing and also a Tesco superstore in the 1980s, but were always resisted by the city council.

The council has now earmarked the barracks area as a potential site for commercial development.