HUNDREDS of people have objected to major development plans on a Hampshire airfield.

The land at Popham Airfield has been earmarked for 3,000 houses in the latest draft of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council's local plan.

The plans, known as Popham Garden Village, have received opposition from Winchester City Council and The Dever Society, which for 30 years has been fighting a proposal for a new town at Micheldever Station.

At the Dever Society's AGM, on June 11, around 70 people heard that additional objections had come from a parliamentary group and a national governing body. 

Society chairman Tessa Robertson said: “Ann Bartaby, planning consultant to the Save Popham Airfield campaign, gave an interesting outline of the importance of Popham Airfield as a strategically important general aviation airfield.

"The All Party Parliamentary Group on Aviation has objected to the ‘garden village’, as has Sport England. Apparently Basingstoke council received over 400 objections to the ‘garden village’ which was a surprise to them.”

Popham Airfield Matters is gaining members to try to preserve the airfield. 

The meeting also heard an update on the Winchester City Council draft local plan, which does not include a new town at Micheldever Station. 

READ MORE: Popham Airfield: Campaign launched to fight 3,000-home plans

Cllr Jackie Porter told the meeting that the city council hoped to publish the Regulation 19 draft for consultation this autumn. They are not expecting any big changes from the Reg 18 draft published in autumn 2022.

She stressed that the public had made it very clear in the strategic issues and priorities consultation that it did not want large new settlements in the countryside, so these are not included in the plan.

The council is sticking to the housing targets that the standard methodology requires for Winchester District. This figure has gone down slightly since they began the local plan review.

Micheldever New Town developer O’Flynn Group recently proposed that the site be offered as a location for the new hospital, describing it as an 'obvious location' between Winchester and Basingstoke. 

The Dever Society was formed to oppose Micheldever New Town, a scheme for 6,000 homes at Micheldever Station. Popham is around a mile away.