THE villages of Twyford and Colden Common are hoping to fight off a proposal for major work at the nearby Hockley Golf Club.

The club proposes a 'sustainable irrigation' scheme which sounds laudable but the issue is that it would mean a large number of lorries going along the A3335 after dropping dropping off tonnes of material at the golf course.

The application has gone to the planning authority which is the South Downs National Park. There have already been more than 30 objections and more than 80 letters of support.

Planners are the park are currently considering the scheme before making a decision or sending it to the planning committee for councillors from across the national park to decide.

The main issue is that the lorries carrying 130,000 cubic metres of material to the club will use the M3 which runs next to the course. But on exiting the club dozens of HGVs every day will head south on the B3335 through the villages.

Before the M3 was completed in 1994 the main road through Twyford and Colden Common was the A333 and saw a lot of heavy traffic. The A33 Winchester bypass was an inadequate road and traffic often diverted onto the A333 blighting the lives of local people. It was one of the benefits of the completion of the motorway through Twyford Down that traffic would ease on the A333, now reclassified as the B3335.

One has great sympathy for the villagers. There would appear to be an obvious solution. Make the lorries leaving the golf club turn right back onto the M3. This would be a longer route and thus more expensive but it is not unreasonable to have this as a planning requirement on any permission that is given.