LOCAL authorities are alarmed by proposals which could see the green gap between Romsey and Southampton filled with 10,000 homes.

Members of Romsey Town Council, Test Valley Borough Council and Romsey Extra Parish council are urging people to make their objections known about the idea - which is part of the draft plan for the South East - before it's too late.

Seera, the South East England Regional Assembly - which has assessed housing needs over the next 20 years - says that house building in the region has not kept pace with the rest of the country.

Under a part of the strategy called PUSH (The Partnership for Urban South Hampshire) it suggests that up to 80,000 new homes could be built in the area between Totton and Havant.

It says that could be met by a "new town" of between 5,000 and 10,000 homes in the Lee/Ashfield area between Romsey and Southampton.

"We're extremely concerned and would ask whether the area was capable of taking this kind of development." said Rod Simpson, Chairman of the Romsey Extra Parish Council. "Romsey is the quintessential market town but this would change its context totally. It would become urban rather than rural."

Mr Simpson added that the plan had not taken into account the infrastructure required to sustain such a development: "To consider this without the issue of finance simply doesn't make sense," he said.

Romsey Town Council also objects and issued a statement last week: "The creation of a new settlement would simply extend Southampton City along the shores of the River Test, breaking the strategic gap between city and market town and village. Little account appears to have been taken of the flood-maps, ecological qualities, and close proximity of the New Forest National Park and the relief constraints of the lower Test Valley."

Planning policy officer with Test Valley Borough Council, Stephen Lees, said the plan for a new town did not take into account the transport issues: "There will be an awful lot of traffic trying to get in and out. There are a lot of unanswered questions."

Mr Lees said the idea was part of a government drive to increase brownfield development around Southampton and Portsmouth but because there weren't enough such sites to accommodate 80,000 homes, greenfield areas would have to be targeted.

However, he said: "We should be looking at sites close to built-up areas and not in the countryside," and suggested smaller developments on open sites on the M27 corridor such as near Waterlooville or Fareham.

The authority's criticisms, he said, focused on the impact on the River Test and on Romsey's historic town centre, and the traffic problems caused by a new town, when it meets next Wednesday.

Mr Lees urged people to complete questionnaires which have been sent to every resident in the region from Seera, entitled Your Shout to make sure their voice is heard. The deadline is next Friday (April 15th).

Romsey's Tory parliamentary candidate, Caroline Nokes, said the general election was residents' best opportunity to voice their concerns. "Already some 6000 homes a year are being built in Hampshire. That figure is viable, but thousands extra on top of that would destroy the environment for everybody."

The town's MP, Sandra Gidley, said the issue was an important one for constituents and said it was "higher on the agenda than anyone wanted it to be".

"We can't go on pretending there isn't a desperate need for housing in the south but what is wrong is putting them all on green fields and in the southern Test Valley area."

Mrs Gidley said bearing in mind house prices, the difficulty for first-time buyers to get on the property ladder, and the need for more social housing, it was important to have a "sensible debate" but that didn't mean building 10,000 homes outside the town, making it part of Southampton. "Communities need to have their own identities and in Romsey, there's a strong sense of that."