A ROMSEY councillor has submitted his own planning blueprint for the town to a government inspector charg-ed with reviewing the borough’s Revised Local Plan.

Lib Dem Mark Cooper believes that if the planning inspector Philip Ware backs Test Valley Borough Council’s plans to build 1,300 new homes at Whitenap the development should be moved south to preserve a green gap between it and Romsey.

Current proposals see the homes stretching the length of the site east of the A27 from the roundabout near Ashfield rail bridge to the edge of the allotments on the fringe of Romsey.

Mr Cooper wants to see the homes concentrated on the southern end of the site at Ashfield with a green belt area between it and Whitenap.

Mr Cooper, who calls his blueprint Plan B, said: “It is a combination of what Test Valley wants and what the people in the town want. If the planning inspector Mr Ware finds the Revised Local Plan sound, he and I need to amend it to make it work for the town.”

The proposed Ashfield Village would be bordered by farmland stretching from Whitenap in the north, Beggarspath Wood in the east, the Romsey to Southampton railway line in the west and the Ashfield Roundabout to the south.

Mr Cooper is proposing that the existing Whitenap playspace be extended southwards.

He says this new green area could be a “really worthwhile asset to the town”.

“Residents in Tadburn Road, even in the three-storey flats, would only have a distant and intermittent view of the new Lower Whitenap,” he said.

Original plans for the development had included a road bridge over the railway linking the new homes with the southern end of Romsey.

However, this was ruled out on the grounds of cost and a bridge does not feature in the new local plan.

“As there is no prospect of a road bridge over the railway line at the northern end, then it would be better to push the ‘village centre’ further south, nearer to the Ashfield roundabout,” said Mr Cooper.

His Plan B includes a pedestrian and cycle path from the new village to Romsey.

He claims the scheme has support from other borough and town councillors.

Mr Cooper admits in his submission to the planning inspector that his plan might not offer enough room for the proposes 1,300 homes.

However, he says any shortfall would be made up by other housing schemes in the Romsey area, including Ganger Farm (275 homes) and Oxlease (64) which were not included in the borough’s original local plan.

The 1,300 home plan for White attracted 1,107 objections and was opposed by Romsey Town and Romsey Extra Parish councils along with Romsey and District Society.

Mr Cooper said there was  “no collective vision” or widespread support for the Whitenap development and without these the local plan could not be found “sound”.

Hearings to consider the content of the Revised Local Plan will start with the Test Valley North allocations on December 11 and the Southern area on January 13.

Everyone who has commented on the Revised Local Plan during the public consultation period between January 24 and March 7 this year will be notified.