AN Alresford resident is calling for proposals for nearly 400 homes to be started from scratch, following a mistake by city planners.

In a statement today Winchester City Council’s head of strategic planning, Steve Opacic, admitted and apologised for overestimated population projections.

The statement said: “The discrepancy means that the population estimates provided for the town in 2031, after the construction of the proposed 500 homes, could be over-estimated by between 470 and 680 people.

“As the ‘needs groups’ took account of the erroneous projections in their work on housing, employment, open space and infrastructure, their conclusions could be affected. If so, this is most likely to be in relation to employment and the total area of land which is allocated for this purpose.

“The draft local plan proposes to allocate about five hectares of land off Sun Lane for employment. This is to allow for the relocation of businesses from The Dean, and the redevelopment of this area for mixed uses, and to provide additional employment for the increased population of Alresford. As the estimated increase in population is now lower than originally thought, this correction could potentially affect the area of land needed for additional employment.”

There has been a string of hostile public meetings and exhibitions about where the homes could go, and in July the town council voted to back ideas for building off Sun Lane.

A professional group came forward to develop what they called an alternative vision ‘for Alresford, by Alresford’.

Sam Kerr-Smiley, Nursery Road Residents Group chairman and member of the professional group, said the mistake calls the plan into question.

He said: “My view is that we need to start again from scratch.

“For some reason, which we’ll need to go into in some detail at a later date, the needs group got the wrong data and so their conclusions are now suspect. Basically there seems to have been an astonishing overestimate in the region of 10 per cent of the entire population.

“In particular, the figures artificially inflated the future working age population of the town and it’s these figures that have driven the requirement for a new industrial estate on Sun Hill and from that the controversial A31 junction.”

It comes ahead of an exhibition of the Local Plan Part Two, to be held tomorrow (Friday, November 7) at Alresford Community Centre from 3pm until 7.30pm.