HAMPSHIRE County Council could pull the plug on a plan to drill for oil close to homes - because it owns the land, the Daily Echo can reveal.

County leader Ken Thornber has the power to kill the scheme before it even starts going through the normal planning process.

Now residents are urging him to "do the right thing" and throw out the plans.

No date has been fixed for a decision, but a county council spokesman said that Councillor Thornber could act without the issue going before a committee.

The move would delight campaigners who have lodged hundreds of objections to the proposals for farmland at Woodhouse Lane on the Botley-Hedge End border.

Noel Short, 42, from Woodhouse Lane, who is opposed to the scheme, said: "All the residents and walkers don't want it, not just because of scaremongering but because it will be a horrendous eyesore and a major disruption to one of the last areas that has been left untouched.

"Don't do it, Ken - make the right choice."

In a statement on behalf of local campaigners, Peter Burford, of Brunel Close, Hedge End, said: "We welcome the efforts of all those opposed to this totally inappropriate application and value all support received.

"It's good news that it can be quashed at not only the planning stage but also by the land ownership."

As previously reported in the Daily Echo, Northern Petroleum applied to the county for planning permission to carry out exploratory drilling.

The plans, which include a 36m mast and 24-hour drilling for up to seven weeks, have been met by fierce opposition from residents of nearby homes and parents of pupils of Berrywood School less than 400 metres away.

The application was due to be determined next month.

Cllr Thornber said: "The county council has two very separate roles in this situation, being both the planning authority for minerals and waste and the owner of the site. Unusually, the company has chosen to submit the planning application in advance of the county council making a decision, as landowner, whether to make the site available, irrespective of the outcome of the planning application."

Now Eastleigh Council leader Keith House has turned the focus on to the fact that Hampshire County Council owns the site.

He told the Daily Echo: "The county council can just cancel this out with one simple decision - and it doesn't even have to go through the planning process."

Managing director of Northern Petroleum, Derek Musgrove, said: "We will allow the due process to run its course. If they say no, they say no. If they say yes, they say yes. We accept the powers are what they are."