Romsey could have planning 'carnage' as schemes submitted to council

Planning applications that will bring approximately 700 homes to the Romsey area have been slammed as “carnage of unplanned, piecemeal development”.

Three new planning applications have been submitted to Test Valley Borough Council, seeking permission to build these homes.

Gleeson Strategic Land has applied to build 300 homes on land north of Sandy Lane, while Gladman Developments has applied to build 100 homes in on 5.76 hectares of land south of Romsey Road, West Wellow.

Meanwhile, Gladman Developments has also submitted a reserved matters application to TVBC to allow it to start work on 270 homes on Halterworth Lane, and Stratland Estates has readvertised an application to build up to 27 homes on land at Roundabouts Copse, off Botley Road in North Baddesley.

If all four applications are approved, it will add approximately 697 houses, including on land At Sandy Lane that residents have warned is flood-prone.

Borough councillor Nick Adams-King (Conservative for Blackwater) said that these speculative developments “offer nothing but the carnage of unplanned, piecemeal development with no regard for local infrastructure.”

Land north of Sandy Lane (Image: Chris Atkinson)

Cllr Adams-King, who is also Hampshire County Councillor for Romsey Rural and county council leader, said: “The speculative planning applications keep coming, and the chaos they are causing stems directly from Angela Rayner’s changes to national planning policy. The Romsey Advertiser has already highlighted the problems with the Sandy Lane site, where developers are proposing to build on fields that spend much of the winter underwater. Flooding is also a major concern in Wellow, where an application has been submitted on land that has already been rejected twice as unsuitable for development — and where any large‑scale building would permanently alter the character of the village.

“Developers are clearly hoping to replicate the route taken in Halterworth, where outline permission was secured only after an appeal, and where a detailed application has now been lodged.

“These speculative bids, all outside the Local Plan, offer nothing but the carnage of unplanned, piecemeal development with no regard for local infrastructure. From water supply and sewage capacity to highways and NHS services, this opportunistic rush to exploit the temporary lack of a five‑year housing land supply delivers nothing but anxiety and disruption for residents.

“I will use every lever available — from landscape impact to flooding and environmental concerns — to oppose these unsuitable proposals. What we need are the right homes, of the right type, in the right places, tested objectively and transparently through the democratic process of a Local Plan. That is the process residents deserve, and it is the process the current Government removed overnight with their decisions in December 2024.”