"Stop the Sprawl" campaigners welcome WCC vote

4.28.12pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 23rd Apr 2009

Liberal Democrat campaigners in Durley and Curdridge have welcomed Winchester City Council's amendments to their Local Development Framework Preferred Options which flag up the rural sensitivity of the green fields in the City Council area close to these villages and highlight the fact that they are not suitable for the building of houses..

Cllr Peter Mason and Prospective MP Liz Leffman have been collecting signatures on a petition to "Stop the Sprawl", which has been signed by hundreds of local residents, who want to stop the building of a 6,000 unit housing development in the area around Boorley Green. The proposed scheme includes a possible1-2,000 houses in the countryside close to Durley and Curdrige, in the Winchester City Council area.

Cllr Mason and Liz Leffman plan to present their petition to 10 Downing Street, asking the government to abandon the entire scheme.

Both the Conservative and the Liberal Democrat groups on Winchester City Council tabled amendments and an agreement was reached between the two parties regarding the wording.

"I am delighted that the Conservative-run council has at last woken up to what residents in Durley and Curdridge have known for a long time - that our beautiful countryside is threatened by this unnecessary housing scheme." Liz Leffman said.

"They have responded to our "Stop the Sprawl" campaign, for which we are grateful. Cllr Mason and I will be now be taking the message to the Government - that we don't need a 6,000 unit housing scheme here, and that a top-down approach to planning, which excludes the views of local people, does not work."