VILLAGERS are launching a second battle against development near their homes.

Residents in Micheldever Station, north of Winchester, last autumn saw off plans for an anaerobic digester, with the help of the county council.

Now it is the council that is their enemy, wanting to develop an asphalt plant only 200 metres down the road.

The council has applied to modernise a disused asphalt plant in Micheldever, despite denying planning permission for the nearby digester.

More than 70 residents have called for the council to scrap the plans.

Peter Bradley, a member of Micheldever Action Group (MAG), said he was appalled the council has submitted the plan.

“The total and complete ineptness of how the council has put this forward is just staggering,” he said.

“It was done with supreme arrogance as they believed, because they currently own the land, they could just reinvigorated it without challenge. That is not so.

“However, it is not right of us to just object. We would only be able to object once we have been provided with the facts, but their communication has been awful, so we have no idea when that will be.”

Last year, Hampshire County Council refused an application for an anaerobic digester waste treatment plant.

The MAG was set up to fight the proposal and claimed victory with the application’s refusal last October.

Resident Phil Bryant lives half a mile away from the plant and is worried about the impact.

He said: “We can see the lights from an upstairs bedroom, and that is just one of the issues that concerns us. The height of the fence surrounding the plant is not adequate enough and needs to be sorted to cover the lights.

“For exactly the same reasons that the council did not want the waste treatment plant in the area – noise, light pollution – they are now saying they want an asphalt plant.”

The plans were submitted to the county council, making them both the applicant and the decision maker.

Mr Bryant added: “The cynics amongst us are saying the deal is done and there is nothing we can do.”

John Botham, chairman of Micheldever Parish Council planning committee, was also critical. He said: “The communication from the council has been really quite poor. As the parish council we did our own information leaflets to let the village understand what was going to happen.”

Douglas Paterson, Dever Society chairman, said: “The applicant and the decider are one and the same and that worries us. Can it be properly scrutinised?”

The council confirmed a planning application had been made for “an extension of operational capability to support a wider range of highway materials.”