A WINCHESTER developer is awaiting a decision on a controversial development that would see a home replace with a mix of eight houses and flats.

A decision was due this week on the application for 49 Stoney Lane, in Weeke.

If approved by city council planners, it would see a mix of four three-bedroom semi-detached houses and four two-bedroom flats.

The application has been submitted by Samuel Doswell, of Doswell Project, where he is a director with his uncle and former Eastleigh manager Paul Doswell.

It comes almost a year after a long-running planning battle involving Doswell Projects and Stoney Lane was resolved.

As previously reported, the controversial proposal to knock down 7 Stoney Lane and replace it with four houses was approved by Winchester City Council’s planning committee last June.

It followed a campaign by residents which saw the initial five-property scheme rejected, before developers came back with the amended four-home scheme.

Resident Loui Harmer spearheaded the campaign against that project and has also objected to this one. She wrote: “There is a distinct mismatch between what the developers are prepared to build in this instance and that which would actually benefit the locality and/or local people.”

However, the plans have received at least half a dozen letters in support. Michael Dyble, of nearby Bereweeke Avenue, wrote: “There seems to be a theme at the moment where developers in our area are trying to build expensive homes of one type and are not building anything that can be considered affordable to the majority.”

Due to the number of objections, which total more than 20, the current application is likely to go before a planning committee. If that is the case, a decision will not be made until next month at the earliest.