VILLAGERS are waiting to discover if their letters of objection against a proposed gypsy and traveller site have been successful.

Hundreds of residents living in and around Nursling oppose the site.

The planned site for seven families is included in Test Valley Borough Council's latest blueprint for development known as The Core Strategy. Now council officers are currently sifting through all of the responses to a nine-week consultation that finished last month into the proposals. It is proposed to build the site at Lee Lane, just to the north of the crossroads of Upton Lane, Station Road and Church Lane.

Rownhams and Nursling Parish Council found that 98 per cent were against the proposal.

One resident who lives nearby but did not want to be named said that the Hampshire County Council-owned land was not suitable. It was contaminated after being used as a domestic waste tip more than 20 years ago.

Since then the two-acre, hedge-lined field next to the railway line has not been used for any other purpose.

Test Valley Borough and Nursling and Rownhams Parish councillor Nigel Anderdon said: This site is unsuitable as the land is contaminated and will lead to considerable expense to rectify.

Fellow parish and borough councillor Phil Bundy said that it was difficult for local residents because everything was up in the air regarding the site.

There are some very good reasons that it is not the best choice.

Also included in Test Valley Borough Council's plan is the allocation of 3,910 new homes for the south of the borough.

Options that have been put forward include 2,400 new homes in Romsey C taking in the 800 homes already allocated in the Abbotswood site north of the town.

North Baddesley has been earmarked for 500 new homes and Nursling and Rownhams are expected to get another 300 new dwellings.

Another proposal could see up to 1,800 homes built in Whitenap, east of Southampton Road in Romsey.

It is likely that the final version of Test Valley Borough Council's 20-year planning blueprint will be agreed by the end of the year and may go to a planning inquiry.

If given the go-ahead all of the new homes will be phased in over the next two decades and should be in place by 2026.

Work on Southampton's proposed gypsy and traveller transit site has been suspended until a public inquiry is heard to decide on an application to designate the land earmarked for the site at Monks Brook, Swaythling, a village green.