Up to 450 homes could be built on a controversial pocket of undeveloped farmland in Basingstoke.
On Wednesday David Wilson Homes Southern submitted a planning application to build on Kiln Farm, north Popley fields. The announcement is a bitter blow to campaigners who have fought to block its development.
Giuseppe Zanre, David Wilson Homes planning director, said details of the first 200 homes had been submitted, as well as outline permission for the entire 450-home project.
“David Wilson Homes Southern is proud of the existing Marnel Park development and we are looking to replicate this success through our latest proposals," he said.
“We have completed extensive consultation and have shaped the development to best suit the needs of the local community as far as possible.”
The project would also see the construction of a new community centre, and a primary school.
The 23-hectare field is a popular site for dog walkers and activity groups. It is bounded to the east by homes and the earlier Marnel Park development to the south.
In the southern corner of the field is Popley Ponds, which is home to protected great crested newts relocated from the Marnel Park development.
But Popley East Labour councillor Shelley Phelps, who has spearheaded the 600-strong petition to stop the development said the plans were “bad for Popley”.
She said the development company had ignored the residents concerns during a series of public consultations last year.
“Popley has had the largest amount of development than anywhere else in the town in the last two years,” she said. “The community needs time to integrate more, to get used to all the development it has had already without just putting in more.
“People need time to breath, why should Popley always take the brunt of the development? It’s a disgusting sham of a process really.”
Since announcing its masterplan in 2006 David Wilson Homes have always planned for Marnel Park to be a two-phase development providing 750 homes.
Campaigners said they are calling for a meeting with the company and borough council planning chiefs in a bid to force a u-turn on plans.
“I’m not against development, I support it, but when it’s the right kind, but this is not that,” Cllr Phelps said. “We had over 600 signatures on out petition which says people don’t want this development.”
