EVEN when development is inevitable, neighbours can have their say and influence the outcome, a planning chief assured residents of Chilbolton Avenue, Winchester.

They were at West Downs, Romsey Road, on Tuesday for an evening of talks and workshops organised by the city council to encourage residents to contribute their views on how the area should be developed so they could be incorporated into a Local Area Design Statement.

The avenue is being targeted by developers who are buying up property and gardens to build multiple homes - and residents who are not selling up want it to stop so the peaceful and picturesque character of the area might be saved.

City council planners have commissioned Poole-based environmental design consultants, Matrix, to produce the statement, using money allocated from the government planning grant.

The council wants statements produced for areas under development pressure and Chilbilton Avenue is one.

It is also under pressure to do something to provide guidance. The design statement will be drawn up in accordance with government planning guidelines and will then be adopted into local planning policy to assist in making further decisions.

"You can still influence development which is going to happen anyway and this workshop is about how we can make it better," said the city council's forward planning manager, Steve Opacic.

After the meeting, Mike Newby, a resident of Chilbolton Avenue and a campaigner against development, said: "The majority were there because they were concerned about the amount of development and the density of the development.

"Council officials said they were powerless to do anything about it. It is to do with Central Government and policy being passed. Whether that policy is being interpreted in the best interests of Winchester is questionable."

Mr Opacic said: "From my experience and from what other people have said, there are obviously a lot of concerns about the pressure on Chilbolton Avenue and what would happen to the area should there be further development.

"In some of the workshop groups, people were prepared to participate in how development should happen; in others, people were firmly against development. The workshops were a bit smaller than we had hoped."

Charles Gardner, from Matix, said: "We felt that people were really prepared to engage in a more reasoned discussion. Our fear was that there would be a shouting match but people were actually very good."

When Martix have analysed their data, they will compile a draft statement which will be issued for consultation.

By the summer, a final document will be drawn up and put before cabinet to decide whether it should be incorporated into the council's planning policy.