A PLANNING application for the next phase of Winchester's largest housing development since Badger Farm is due to be submitted in the coming days.

Phase 2A will include 250 homes as the Barton Farm project, also known as Kings Barton.

The news was announced in a report to councillors setting out the latest works, which will eventually see a new estate of 2,000 home, 800 of which will be affordable and available to people on the city council waiting list.

The report said so far 205 homes were occupied at Phase 1B, to the north of the site that borders Andover Road, with 18 remaining unsold.

It added groundworks for the play area in that section have begun and the phase is set to be completed this year.

Following the planning application for Phase 2A, which is located centrally on the site, the first residents are set to move in at Phase 1A, the southern most section, in late August.

The latest update comes a couple of months after the first hole was dug at the new Barton Farm Academy.

The school, which is part of the development, was originally meant to open in Spring 2019 after planning permission was given to Hampshire County Council four years ago.

But schedules were delayed due to the slow progress of the rest of the long-awaited scheme, which was given the green light back in 2012.

Construction on the school is now expected to be finished by May next year.

City and county councillor, Jackie Porter, who is also part of the county council’s Education Advisory Panel, said at the groundbreaking ceremony in May: “It’s now running smoothly. We didn’t have enough children to fill it last time, and of course the money from those children is necessary to run a school.

“But now, lots of people moving in have children, or are having children, and our teams are predicting that the numbers will be sufficient in 2020.

“It’s not a science, but an art, trying to figure out how many kids you are going to have! Of course, you never know how many people are going to move in or out.”

Barton Farm will have an attendance of up to 420 children between four and 11 years, and will feed into the Henry Beaufort School.