A TEST Valley man is calling on a local authority to stop houses from being built in a part of Ampfield after a number of homes were hit with "serious flooding".

Ian Case, from the Old Vicarage, claims he warned Test Valley Borough Council (TVBC) the risk of flooding would increase in the area if planning permission was granted to build 39 houses in Morley's Green.

Now, the 78-year-old is urging developers to build elsewhere in Ampfield, claiming the 39 houses north of the A3090 have made flooding worse on the main road.

Ian said: "There was some serious flooding in the houses on the south side of the A3090 on August 27 and the next day I could see sandbags outside of houses when I was walking in the middle of Ampfield.

"On one house there was a rainwater downpipe from the gutter that was directed not into a drain but out onto the pavement because for years the water table has been too high to take even the rainwater from this lady's roof.

"My cellar was not flooded this time but most winters there can be two or three feet of water in there, so I worry that further building north of Morley's Green will yet again contribute to this flooding."

Ian believes the water has come from the Morley's Green development and also rushes from Hillier's fields, which "are north of and higher than the flooded houses".

He added: "When the Morley's Green development was under consideration five years ago, a group of Ampfield residents, including a civil engineer who specialised in drainage systems, warned planners about this but we were ignored.

"What we want to do is come together as locals and tell the residents living in Morley's Green that if Perbury Group [who had planning permission for Morley's Green] start building higher up then they could be in danger of being flooded too.

"We are not NIMBYs [not in my back yard], we do recognise that there might be a small need for housing in Ampfield, but there are other places to build, such as by the cricket ground."

TVBC has been contacted for comment.