RESIDENTS fighting to stop a major road being diverted through a housing estate have launched a new campaign.

People living in Kings Barton want to stop Andover Road being switched through their estate with the current road being closed to through traffic.

The Kings Barton Residents Association (KBRA) has gathered 3,200 names to press the city and county council to have the road reopened as a requirement of any future planning permission for development at nearby Sir John Moore Barracks.

The MoD is due to vacate in 2026 and the site is being considered for mixed use including around 1,000 homes.

The KBRA says the diversion, approved when Kings Barton got planning permission in 2012, will see thousands of vehicles passing close to people's homes in Winchester Avenue, causing pollution and danger.

READ MORE HERE: Andover Road diversion onto Winchester Avenue, new date emerges

The association had been pressing developer CALA Homes and the city and county councils to reverse the diversion. Now it is focussing on the proposals for the barracks site.

Mike Slinn, chairman of the KBRA, raised the issue at the full Council meeting and asked the council to raise the issue with the planning inspector who will hold a public inquiry into the forthcoming Local Plan in due course.

City council leader Martin Tod said there was no mechanism for the council to do so but that the public could make their feelings clear.

"The only way in which information goes into the plan process from this point is through the formal 'Reg 19' consultation into the Local Plan. It is open to any resident to make that submission but they have to respond to that Reg 19 consultation. There is no other way it will reach the inspector."

Cllr Tod said the planning inspector could consider the diversion as part of the analysis of the housing requirement for Winchester.

CALA Homes is currently building Kings Barton, formerly known as Barton Farm. Andover Road is to be diverted when 650 of the 2,000 homes are completed. The Kings Barton Forum meeting in the spring said the opening is due in January 2026.