Concern that growth would

The town offers great leisure and shopping facilities and we have on our doorstep some of the more beautiful countryside in the south of England.

To plan for the future we need to recognise that it is this unique mix of attributes that makes Basingstoke a great place to live. Any future growth needs to be carefully handled.

There are too many examples of attractive towns losing their appeal by the careless hands of planners.

Some say Basingstoke should strive to take on city status. Little mention is made of the problems associated with being a community of that size.

Central government is trying to dictate that Basingstoke should grow rapidly to become a dormitory town for Reading. That would mean not only taking on the already planned 40,000 new residents in the next decade but 20,000 houses on top of that - eight more communities the size of Chineham.

No one is able to say where these houses will go. Which green fields are to be built on to fulfil this scale of promise?

The only thing made clear by the Government is that there will be no central funding to put in place infrastructure that such massive scale development would need.

We already see that even promised infrastructure is not always delivered - youth facilities that were an important part of the Beggarwood development were axed and the funds were used elsewhere.

Planning consent for 800-plus houses at Sherfield Park was approved with a new primary school in the development.

Now Government has cut that funding.

Is this something that could happen to other large-scale developments?

Fundamental decisions about the future of our town are being made by central government and a minority administration in the borough council which does not, I believe, reflect the views of the majority of people in Basingstoke.

Basingstoke is a great place to live because it is not a city like Reading.

Basingstoke is successful because it is a town with a good balance of residential and business communities.

The real challenge is to maintain and build on our current successful formula.

To do this we need to:

call a halt to massive overdevelopment that risks undermining Basingstoke's strengths

ensure that infrastructure investment promises, forming part of existing and future planning consents, are honoured in full

properly fund social housing, the building of which has plummeted nationally in the past seven years and has led to an alarming increase in homelessness

better support business in our town and more effectively work to ensure Basingstoke remains an attractive place for new and existing business to operate.

The year 2005 is a turning point for Basingstoke. The coming 12 months will decide how it will develop over the next generation.

-Maria Miller (pictured above), Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for Basingstoke, Ellisfield.