A CRUCIAL decision on the next park-and-ride site near Winchester was set to be made today.
Hampshire County Council is to confirm that it wishes to build an 850-space car park at Itchen Farm, on the site of the Tarmac compound used during the building of the M3 in the 1990s.
The choice will be controversial because the site, sandwiched between Otterbourne Road and the M3, will be widely visible from across the Itchen valley.
However, the county council has discarded an even more contentious alternative - on nearby Bushfield Farm just south of Badger Farm Road. Local opposition to that site was strong. The county council carried out a public consultation last summer suggesting seven sites south of Winchester. Its exhibitions attracted 1,600 people.
County councillor Mel Kendal is due to approve the Tarmac site as the preferred location today.
Construction could begin in spring 2008.
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