CALLS for land in Romsey's Halterworth area to be allocated for more than 1,000 houses over the next five years have attracted a sharp rebuff from Test Valley Borough Council.

If the development went ahead, it would be big enough to justify its own new railway halt on the Romsey to Chandler's Ford line, a public inquiry was told. Consultants speaking for a major developer told the inquiry, into Test Valley Borough Council's local plan allocations for the period until 2011, that the land contained important sand and gravel deposits which could be excavated before houses were built.

On behalf of Charles Church Developments, which controls 37 hectares of land on the former Halterworth estate, consultants from the Luken Beck partnership explained that the merits of the site included:

A choice of nearby schools including Halterworth Primary and Mountbatten Secondary, which could both be expanded, and Stroud School.

It is close to workplaces, shops, services and leisure facilities. It is big enough for its own community facilities and services to be developed rather than being an extension of the existing residential area. There is scope for a new railway halt to be built on the Romsey to Chandler's Ford line to boost transport links. It could be built without significant harm to the environment, with measures included to avoid threatening the preservation of trees, hedges and the Tadburn Lake. There was also considerable evidence about the important sand and gravel -estimated at between 345,000 and 421,000 tones - deposits beneath the surface, which could be extracted in two-and-a-half years.

But the borough council pointed out that the development would deal another blow to the green field gap between North Baddesley and Romsey.

It said in its reply: "The Halterworth site is an integral part of the undeveloped area between the two settlements in terms of their visual separation. The council considers that the land at Halterworth should be included in the gap."

It added that as time would have to be taken to obtain planning consents for mineral extraction and then to remove the sand and gravel, the site would not be available into early or mid-2009, which would be too late for it to be included in the current plan's allocation. The development, it said, would also result in the loss of significant areas of high quality agricultural land.