WINCHESTER civic chiefs have approved a developers’ wish list but insist it does not signify their endorsement.

All councils have to draw up a list of sites that are available for development, which has proved highly controversial in Winchester.

Last year, a new town, called ‘Royaldown’, emerged as a proposal for Down Farm between Oliver’s Battery and Hursley.

It was included on the Strategy Housing and and Economic Land Availablity Assessment (SHELAA), sparking a torrent of protest. The Royaldown plan has since been withdrawn because the county council withdraw permission for a crucial access road across its land at Bushfield Down.

Local authorities have to draw up SHELAAs to inform their Local Plans to show they have considered all options. Winchester’s runs from 2019 to 2039, with a current requirement for 665 homes a year or 14,000 over the period of the plan. The number of proposed houses on the SHELAA list stands at 53,363, three times the requirement over the next 18 years, indicating the pressure from developers on the Winchester district.

The list was approved by the Cabinet last Wednesday but Cabinet heard it worried many local people. Cllr Angela Clear said: “I know this is only a list but residents and parish councillors do look at it as if it is set in stone.”

Cllr Martin Tod added: “It is a set of bids (by developers). Just because something is on the list does not mean it is going to go ahead. Some are so ludicrous in planning terms it is very unlikely they will go through.”

The SHELAA includes proposals for major schemes around Winchester including 2,056 houses on the land between Wellhouse Lane and the A34 at Three Maids Hill; 1,071 homes at South Winchester Golf Club at Pitt; and 302 houses just south of Oliver’s Battery, a remnant of the Royaldown scheme.

For the first time the council has also drawn up a list of ‘green sites’, land proposed for carbon offsetting, nitrogen offsetting, renewable energy such as solar farms, and biodiversity net gain.

Conservative group leader Caroline Horrill told Cabinet: “We need to assure residents that the (SHELAA) sites are not allocated for development.”

And even though Royaldown has been dropped there are still some 2,000 houses in Hursley on the SHELAA list. “Although Royaldown is not on the table this still creates great concern to residents given fundamental change such a number of new dwellings would create.”

Cllr Horrill also raised the issue of why no ‘employment’ land was designated at Sir John Moore Barracks which is set to be vacated by the Army in 2026.

Adrian Fox, strategic planning manager, said the council was keen for a mixed use of the barracks site.

On Royaldown Mr Fox told Cabinet that the council working with Hursley Parish Council which is drawing up a Neighbourhood Plan.

Cllr Horrill also spoke about the PUSH, the Partnership for Urban South Hampshire which meets in private and discusses development in the southern part of Hampshire including the Southern Parishes of the Winchester district.

Cllr Tod said it was important Winchester was in those discussions, because “if we don’t we are at greater risk of being surprised at what comes forward and dealing in a reactive way.”