TALKS are ongoing to find a compromise between residents and Winchester City Council over plans for parking.

Residents in Woodman Close, Sparsholt, previously called for the council to revisit a proposal to pave over part of their communal green space to make way for 27 parking spaces.

In May neighbours met with ward councillor Caroline Horrill and head of housing Gillian Knight to discuss a way forward.

Now, the authority has said that it is continuing to develop a scheme that is backed by both sides.

Ms Knight said: “We had a petition from the local community and we met and we had a robust conversation, so I think we were being quite transparent about the process and they were heard because they were very concerned about the larger scheme we were proposing, so I think the community feel heard and the petition has been replied to on behalf of Cllr Thompson and we are now at the stage where we will be looking at the general estate improvements programme as a whole later in the autumn but it still remains on the programme… we need to make a compromise with the community around the scheme we really want to see there.”

It comes as an extra £50,000 has been granted for further investigations ahead of the building of three one-bedroom houses and two two-bedroom bungalows by the council in Woodman Close.

Cabinet member for housing and asset management Kelsie Learney approved the funding during a decision day on Monday.

She said: “Concerns have been raised around parking in connection with the loss of some informal parking around the site, I am satisfied that the parking loss is fairly marginal but happy to revisit a parking scheme for the area which will deal with some of the wider parking problems which aren’t actually connected to the development we are proposing today.”