Five hundred residents from a rural area near Winchester are fighting a plan by Hampshire County Council to turn a linked series of bridleways into a road.

Horse-riders, cyclists, and walkers are opposed to the area near King's Somborne being opened to four-wheeled vehicles and motorcycles.

Hampshire County Council asserts that historical evidence shows the routes were upgraded to "byways open to all traffic."

The two sides faced each other at a public inquiry in King's Somborne this week.

At issue is the route running north from Pitt Down, in Hursley parish, through the parishes of Sparsholt, King's Somborne and Crawley to the Winchester to Stockbridge Road.

Alexandra Lewis, a senior rights of way officer for Hampshire County Council, argued that the main north-south part of the claimed route was part of an old road between the port of Southampton and the market town of Andover. This was apart from the section of the order route within Sparsholt.

"Throughout its length it is either a modern carriageway with a sealed surface, or set out in an inclosure award as a carriage road, or in the case of a small section in Chilbolton, a former carriageway since stopped up by parliament."

Inclosure was the process by which land that was communally farmed or managed, passed into unrestricted, individual ownership. The last documented inclosure in Hampshire was 1884.

Ms Lewis said: "The inclosure awards for Hursley, King's Somborne and Crawley support the upgrading of the order routes in those parishes to byway open to all traffic."

Dave Tilbury, of Eastleigh, who is national rights of way co-ordinator for the Trail Riders' Fellowship, has applied for an order that would open the series of bridleways to all traffic.

He told the inspector, Mrs Sue Arnott: "I am of the view that old roads, such as the one subject of this inquiry, are as valuable to our heritage and rural character as are old buildings."

He said that although it was illegal to obstruct or plough a carriageway, "in the case of the routes under consideration both those illegal acts have taken place. The southern section is so neglected that it is now an impenetrable yew hedge over the hollow way."

He added: "My investigation uncovered evidence that indicated, quite forcefully in my view, that King Somborne 34 was part of the old road from Southampton to Andover."

But one of the objectors, Primrose Feuchtwanger, told the Hampshire Chronicle: "I am a long-term resident of Sparsholt and for the better part of 30 years have ridden horses many miles around this part of Hampshire.

"Even if a carriage road between Andover and Hursley had been envisaged in the late 18th Century I can't believe there is evidence it was actually built along the bridlepaths we are considering here. A proper survey would have warned of the great difficulty and expense of building and maintaining a route."