Barton Farm is saved from homes

From the archive, first published Wednesday 22nd Feb 2006.

JUBILANT residents are celebrating one of Hampshire's biggest planning victories after defeating proposals for 2,000 homes.

Campaigners successfully argued that CALA Homes's scheme for a huge estate at Barton Farm on the edge of Winchester would wreck the city.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott accepted the planning inspector's decision and has dismissed CALA's appeals.

Mr Prescott agreed there was "no compelling justification for the release of the appeal site".

The Save Barton Farm Group has been celebrating its victory following a campaign that started in 1998 when the farmland was first targeted.

Committee member Laura Clarke said last night: "We are very pleased the inspector has agreed there is no justification for the site."

Mrs Clarke said the aim now was to remove Barton Farm from its status as a reserve major development area in the Hampshire Structure Plan up to 2011.

She said: "There is still a lot to play for. This is a victory but we have not finished yet."

Alan Weeks, chairman of the Winchester Residents' Association, said: "This is wonderful news. I congratulate the Save Barton Farm Group for their superb campaign.

"The development would have over-loaded the city's infrastructure and destroyed the city special qualities such as its landscape setting and the historic centre."

However, the developer said it was disappointed that a chance for badly-needed housing, including hundreds of affordable homes, had been lost.

CALA group development director Robert Millar said: "We are obviously disappointed that the opportunity to create a sustainable community at Winchester has

Disappointed

not been taken, but cannot comment further until we have analysed the decision."

CALA had proposed shops, a primary school and open spaces for the farmland which lies between Andover Road and the railway line.

Mr Prescott did accept that the lack of affordable housing was becoming a problem but did not justify the development as a whole.

Mrs Clarke said the Save Barton Farm group did care about affordable housing but said the city council should do more to ensure more such homes were built at other sites.

The decision follows a public inquiry held in Winchester in October and November last year.

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