THE firm aiming to build at Barton Farm in Winchester is launching a High Court challenge to salvage its scheme.

Cala Homes will argue that Eric Pickles has no legal power to scrap regional housing targets until a new policy is in place.

If it wins, the firm would be better placed to persuade national planning chiefs to overrule local councillors who have twice blocked the scheme.

This week, Winchester City Council pledged to defend its decision, and campaigners are urging the local authority not to cave in.

Winchester was told by the previous Government to build 12,000 homes in the district by 2026.

Barton Farm could provide 2,000, and the council voted last year to name it as a potential housing site in its 20-year masterplan.

But when Cala Homes’ scheme came before planning chiefs in June, they blocked it for a second time.

The decision came just after Mr Pickles said the new Government was scrapping regional housing targets.

As a result, Cala Homes asked to postpone its appeal against the council’s refusal, which was due to be heard in September.

That public inquiry is on hold until after the High Court challenge, which could be decided within weeks.

The firm recognises that if it wins, it could have an impact on other schemes across Britain, but its focus is on Barton Farm.

It is the Scottish developer’s largest project in England, having first targeted the site in 1994 and buying it four years later.

In an exclusive Chronicle interview, the firm’s land director, Robert Millar, said Winchester needed new homes.

He said: “People are brought up in Winchester and then have to move elsewhere and the family cycle is being broken up and you end up with an unbalanced community.”

Mr Millar said they welcomed district councils being able to set their own housing targets, but Winchester had to recognise its shortage.

“The question is will Winchester plan for what it needs or just plan for what it wants,” he said.

Cala Homes strategic land director, Mike Emett, said: “The system is operating in a way to block development rather than meeting that need.”

He added: “I get the impression that growth is a dirty word and that people want things to stay as they are but the population is growing and getting older with increasing life expectancy and you need to cater for that growth and it’s not happening in Winchester.”

If built, Barton Farm could provide 2,000 homes – including 800 ‘affordable’ ones – shops, a primary school, and possible expansion of Henry Beaufort School nearby.

The firm said the scheme could also reduce commuting into Winchester. It estimates that there are 1.4 jobs for every “active” person in the city, meaning that it is not self-sufficient in labour.

Mr Emett added: “We feel there’s a disproportionate weight given to the views of our opponents and not enough to the 2,500-plus people waiting for housing.”

Save Barton Farm Group has led the long-running campaign against the scheme.

Gavin Blackman, who chairs it, said he was not surprised that Cala Homes was taking legal action.

He added that if the scheme had been approved, campaigners would have made their own High Court bid to overturn the ruling.

Mr Blackman said: “If the council moved positively to do something that would put Barton Farm out of reach forever then even if there was a judicial review it could still stop Cala or any other developer.”

He added: “I honestly think that if the council could develop Barton Farm then they would – councillors of either colour.

“Until they come up with something different then my suspicion would be if the council was backed into a corner then they wouldn’t try to save it.”

City council leader, Cllr Kelsie Learney, said they would fight against the Cala Homes scheme.

She said: “Eric Pickles’ letter was not the sole grounds for refusal of the application so unless something changes before the appeal is heard we will continue to contest the application.”

She added: “Housing need is not just about how many families we currently have on our housing waiting list but about the way local people want their areas to change and develop and what is needed for the kind of local economy we would like to have.

“We are currently putting together the consultation we will be carrying out in the autumn to ask residents what kind of change they would like to see in Winchester and I wouldn’t want to pre-judge what they will tell us.”