COUNCIL chiefs have scrapped a controversial housing scheme that would have doubled the size of a Waterside village, the Daily Echo can reveal.

New Forest District Council has ditched plans to build 200 new homes at Calshot after the proposal was condemned at a public inquiry.

Councillors said the new homes and resulting rise in population would help revitalise the isolated village, which has lost its shop and pub.

However, Calshot residents said the scheme would create extra traffic problems and destroy the character of the area.

They made their protest at a public inquiry into proposed alterations to the district Local Plan, a council blueprint that included the housing scheme.

Government planning inspector Roland Punshon, who chaired the hearing, produced a report last year in which he sided with the objectors.

He said any benefits arising from the new homes would be outweighed by the harm the development caused to the village, which forms part of the New Forest National Park.

Now councillors have modified the district Local Plan and deleted the Calshot scheme in the wake of the inspector's comments.

Jon Holmes, chairman of the Calshot Neighbourhood Group, said: "There are only 173 homes at Calshot and another 200 houses would have decimated the character of the area. It would have resulted in another 300-400 vehicles using the only road in and out of the village."

Calshot county councillor Lee Dunsdon said: "If Calshot is good enough to be in the new National Park, it is good enough to be protected from large-scale housing schemes.

"Residents deserve decent services without having to suffer major development."

Jaki Brown, of Tristan Close, said: "The whole village is really glad that the council has seen sense."

A council spokesman said: "The inspector considered that while some benefits might arise from the proposals the area remained an unsuitable location for new development."

Many of the homes would have been built on the site of the former Flying Boat Inn, which was demolished after a fire.