CAMPAIGNERS will meet next month to fight plans for a new 6,000-home town north of Winchester.

As previously reported, plans for the development near Micheldever Station have arisen once again, nearly 30 years after the site was first proposed.

The family of John Magnier, the Irish bloodstock multi-millionaire, has suggested the potential of the site to the city council as it conducts a review of its Local Plan.

The Magniers bought the Sutton Scotney Estate a couple of years ago for a reported £45 million from Zurich Insurance.

Since 1990 numerous attempts to have the land earmarked for a new town of up to 12,500 houses have been defeated.

The proposed site this time is smaller, lying south of Black Wood, east of the mainline railway and west of the A33.

Now, the Dever Society, set up to fight the original scheme, will host a public meeting to rally support against the plans.

Tessa Robertson, chairman of the society, previously told the Chronicle: “All we have had is confirmation from the city council strategic planning team that a proposal has gone into them. We know nothing more.

“It is a very large scheme. Development has been proposed since 1990. We have fought it. The whole area is opposed to it.

“It is the wrong kind of housing in the wrong place. Since 1990 we have been fortunate to have the support of Winchester City Council.”

Meanwhile, tenant farmer Douglas Paterson, former Dever Society chairman, said: “I think and hope it’s mainly a case of the Magniers trying to keep their hope-value alive... It has arisen as a last minute response to the council’s ‘call for sites’, in which they invite proposals to come forward before producing a long-term plan.

William Helen, Micheldever Parish Council chairman, added: “This is a substantial development in an area which should not be developed. We have always been opposed to it. Developing here would be providing homes for people from London. Development in Hampshire should be further to the south.”

The Dever Society meeting will take place at 7.30pm on Monday, October 8 at the Warren Centre, Micheldever Station.