AN ALLIANCE of residents defending the whole of Basingstoke from massive further development could be formed soon, a leading campaigner has suggested.

The idea was put forward at a packed meeting of the Save Manydown Group by Stephen Reid, the group's chairman.

The group has been fighting plans to develop 2,000 acres of the Manydown estate next to Winklebury, Buckskin and Kempshott.

But Mr Reid said another, bigger threat was looming in the shape of the South East Plan from the South East England Regional Assembly (SEERA).

He claimed this could mean the majority of 6,000 houses being built every year in Basingstoke up to 2026.

He asked the 100-strong audience whether they wanted to join with other groups in Basingstoke against the South East Plan.

He said: "Do we reposition ourselves as a Save Basingstoke Group and get together rather than being picked off one by one?"

Other campaigners said they feared losing their identity and the ability to use local knowledge, so Mr Reid said he would reconsider the idea, perhaps in a looser form of association.

Earlier in the meeting, Mr Reid and group secretary Ted Black-more-Squires reported that they had "scored some hits" during the current Local Plan Inquiry - which included an examination of the case for Manydown.

Hampshire County Council and Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council jointly own the land and want to build houses on it.

Mr Reid said the borough council's admission that it only needed to build 1,800 homes on Many-down up to 2016 was a partial victory.

But he and Phil Hull, a local resident and town planner who also attended the inquiry, warned that opposition to Manydown must be total because once started, the scheme would inevitably expand to the original 8,000 homes proposed.

The campaigners said that the inquiry proceedings - as reported in The Gazette - had highlighted that the county council needed to make millions of pounds from Manydown and intended to start building much earlier than had been believed.

Mr Hull said: "It was the first time that anyone from Hampshire County Council has put up their hand and said what their agenda was."