PLANS to knock down Hampshire police's Winchester headquarters and replace it with 300 homes have received a cautious welcome.

The police have proposed a redevelopment of its Romsey Road headquarters and a relocation to a new site in the M3 - M27 area.

The scheme, pictured above, would be the biggest Winchester city centre redevelopment since the Peninsula Barracks in the mid-1990s.

The knocking down of the building will be highly popular as it is widely considered the ugliest building in the city. The scheme envisages some 90 homes would be affordable. There would be underground parking for 300 vehicles.

A public exhibition in the foyer of the HQ will be open to the public by the end of the week.

Tim Curran, vice chairman of the Oram's Arbour Residents' Association, said: "Nine out of ten people will say yippee. This is a perfect brownfield site. Winchester is short of affordable housing. It's an opportunity for really fine architecture.

"Traffic will be an issue for a few people but I don't think it will be major."

The OARA covers the area next to the headquarters.

The police say that currently some 500 staff work on site and about 195 cars are parked there daily so the overall impact will be minimal.

Alan Weeks, chairman of the Winchester Residents' Association, said: "It will be a relief to see the tower block demolished. We can all look forward to that.

"My gut feeling is that 300 homes is too many. You have to think of the local environment and the impact of people living in Greenhill Road."

Mr Weeks, pictured left, who has lived in Winchester all his life, said he was sceptical of promises that the five-storey flats would be invisible: "In the 1960s we were promised that the tower block would be hidden by the trees. It wasn't hidden."

Mr Weeks said he was concerned that the city council planners are encouraging developers to maximise the number of houses on sites.