PLANNING chiefs are to pass a controversial plan to build homes on an Eastleigh school's playing fields.

Hampshire County Council wants to sell off the land to developers and plough the cash into a multi-million-pound makeover for Nightingale Primary School.

A total of 32 homes would be built on the site, off Chestnut Avenue.

Feelings are running high on the estate surrounding the school, with residents fearing it will open the floodgates for more development and add more cars to an already congested area.

Parents have protested over the proposals because they fear that the loss of land would mean their children would lose valuable sports facilities.

Joanne Chilton, 34, who lives at nearby Sparrow Square and has three children at the school, said people were angry but resigned to the fact the plans would be passed.

She said: "I went to that school and even though I am resigned to the fact that it is going ahead, it still makes me feel sad.

"My worry is that no open land is safe any more. Have you had a look around Eastleigh recently? Everywhere you look there are new flats going up. I have even had a total stranger knock on the door and ask if I would be interested in selling my garden for houses."

Mother-of-three Dawn Moody, 41, whose Blackbird Road home is near the school, was shocked when she saw that the housing development plans would include a footpath running alongside her house.

She said: "I am concerned that this path will be used day and night. Youths will be able to congregate on the path and ride mopeds along it. What also concerns me is that people will be able to hide behind the fence."

Kath Woodley, 68, has lived in her Nightingale Avenue home for about 30 years.

She said: "My grandson is at the school and I am all for modernising it but I am against selling off school land to pay for it.

"They say that children are not getting enough exercise but here they are selling off playing fields. Once this land is sold then it will go on and on with more development."

Mrs Woodley fears that it will add to the current traffic problems around the Nightingale school grounds.

Head teacher Simon Cooper-Hind has said protesters have nothing to worry about because the 255-pupil school does not use the 4.7-acre patch where the houses would be built.

He has sent letters to parents to reassure them the project will be an "excellent opportunity" for the school.

Eastleigh councillors are being recommended to approve the homes plan and a new access road from Chestnut Avenue when they meet next Tuesday.