HAMPSHIRE countryside campaigners are calling for open land between Winchester and Basingstoke to be designated as a strategic development gap.
The Dever Society's call comes in its official response to the consultation on the draft South East Plan, the document that will guide all development in the region until 2026.
A gap would act as a buffer against the eventual merging of Winchester, Basingstoke and Andover.
The society has been fighting plans for a 9,000-home new town at Micheldever Station which is being promoted by the landowner, insurance company Zurich/Eagle Star.
It wants the gap to extend from Eastleigh in the south of Hampshire to Dummer in the north.
These are the northern and south-western boundaries respectively of the proposed South Hampshire sub-region, and the Western Corridor and Blackwater Valley sub-region, two of nine identified by the South East Plan as areas of economic opportunity.
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