IT WOULD be easy to dismiss the self- styled group Action Against Destructive Development (ADD) as just another group of self- serving residents who appear determined to protect their own corner of Hampshire.

They have already fought plans to build 6,000 homes near Eastleigh and made themselves a force to be reckoned with by attracting over 1,000 names to their petition.

Now the group is targeting not the proposal to develop in the area but what it claims is inaction and unnecessary delay in forging ahead with a £120 million road plan to build a road.

In this the group may have a strong case.

The Chickenhall Lane link road between the M27 and the A335 has been long in the planning but appears no closer to becoming a reality.

But if it does, says the group and other backers such as local MP Mims Davies, not only would its completion tackle congestion and air pollution problems for the region but would open up brown earth sites for further development including housing.

A neat solution all round, if an expensive one.

And a proposal likely to attract further support as the question of where to developer in the region becomes ever more urgent.