SOME 500 people have written to Winchester planners about the looming scheme at Barton Farm, council chiefs have revealed.

The deadline for comments on the proposal for 2,000 homes on the northern edge of the city has now closed.

Planning bosses are currently sorting them into those who are for against, or somewhere between.

Winchester City Council is not yet able to say how many people oppose the plans. However, there has been an active campaign to derail the scheme by the Save Barton Farm Group.

Several thousand people, mostly from Winchester, have already signed up to its goal of preserving the greenfield site.

Cala Homes wants permission to build on it, arguing that it would help to meet the acute need for housing in the district.

If approved, the new estate would be the largest expansion of Winchester’s boundaries for 30 years.

Winchester Friends of the Earth opposes the plans, saying it will produce severe problems at the city’s biggest junction, at Andover Road, Stockbridge Road, City Road and Sussex Street.

FoE spokesman Chris Gillham said: “Our profound scepticism concerning the need for 2,000 new homes in Winchester does not mean we think there is no need for some extra affordable or social housing in the city.We simply do not know and would like to see some proper analysis of this.”

Because of the loss of the greenfield site, the Campaign to Protect Rural England is amongst those who are also objecting. The group is challenging the developer’s view that the new homes are needed.

Christopher Napier, who chairs CPRE Hampshire, said: “The current Local Plan has been thoroughly tested through numerous inquiries and appeals, which have proved time and again that there is no justification for large-scale development at Barton Farm.

“As with previous applications, the latest planning application must be refused.

“Although the South East Plan contains targets for house-building between now and 2026, it is common knowledge that the credit crunch has reduced building rates on brownfield sites, so there are brownfield sites available, and there is certainly no need for development of this scale on a new greenfield site.”

Another of the plan’s opponents is Keith Story, who lives on the opposite side of the city at St Cross.

In his letter to planners, he said: “Winchester’s appeal to tourists as a historic city in a largely intact historic landscape would be harmed by allowing it to sprawl beyond its current boundaries into the green farmland of Barton Farm.”

He added: “The prime driving force of the Barton Farm scheme isn’t the need for it, but the profit it will generate.”

Planners are likely to spend several weeks going through all the residents’ responses.

A decision is expected later this year, although a council spokesman said an exact date had not yet been set.

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