TRIUMPHANT residents cheered after civic chiefs last night voted to throw out plans to redevelop Hedge End's Wildern Mill with 251 flats - including an 11-storey tower block.

Too big, too ugly, out of character, more suited to a city centre and likely to create an inward-looking "enclave" was the verdict on the scheme which would have seen five blocks of flats - ranging between four and 11 storeys - built on the five-acre site off Charles Watts Way.

The planning application - submitted jointly by Max Hunt and Town Quay Developments as owners of the site, and Bellway Homes Wessex Ltd as prospective purchasers and developers - also envisaged a new access from Turnpike Way and 357 parking spaces.

It was standing room only as 200 people packed into Hedge End 2000 Centre for the meeting of Eastleigh Council's Hedge End, West End and Botley Local Area Committee. Residents heard senior planning officer Ruth Harding say that the authority had received more than 880 responses from protesting residents.

Objections also came from Hedge End Town Council, the Turnpike Action Group and Residents' Association (TAGRA) and a petition bearing 825 signatures.

But she also said council officers felt that the high-rise development with the "landmark" building was more appropriate in a major city location rather than in suburban Hedge End.

It was a theme echoed in a slick presentation by representatives of TAGRA, led by association chairman Serina Ramos, who told councillors: "This application is just plain wrong. Most residents are baffled as to why anyone would see Hedge End as a suitable location for something like this."

Other speakers predicted the scheme would be a blot on the landscape and turn into a ghetto.

But Graham Beck, for the developers, argued that the scheme had been carefully designed to fit the site without detriment to its surroundings and was designed to redress a "huge shortfall" of smaller homes in the area.

However, councillors rejected the plan.