PROPOSALS to bulldoze a Hampshire plant nursery and replace it with homes have been approved after a ten-year planning battle.

Civic chiefs supported an outline application to build 45 properties on the site of the Pinetops nursery in Ramley Road, Pennington.

An application to use the site for housing was rejected in 2004 and a similar scheme was thrown out the following year.

Plans to demolish the nursery and build 80 homes on the site were withdrawn in 2007.

But the latest scheme, by Pennyfarthing Homes, was approved at a meeting of the district council’s planning and development control committee.

Cllr Elizabeth Lewis said: “We have gone from 80 to 45 properties.

“People living nearby will enjoy a better view, with glasshouses being replaced by open space, and the nursery will be able to move, which is something it’s wanted to do for a long time.”