A company has revealed plans to drill for oil on land near Winchester earmarked as part of a possible South Downs National Park.

Villagers and civic chiefs are fighting Pentex Oil's proposals to sink a borehole on farmland by the A272 at Matterly Farm, Ovington, east of Winchester.

The company, which has lodged an application with Hampshire County Council, has operated several oil wells since the 1980s in the Crawley area, to the west of the city.

In the 1990s, a small well was opened at nearby Avington, but opponents are worried that the new plans will have a much greater impact.

Pentex wants approval to operate for up to two years to evaluate the site's potential. If oil is discovered, it would then reapply for the go-ahead to exploit the reserves.

The company wants to build an access track, a compound which would be lit at night and, for a five-week period, erect a 38-metre (120-foot) drill mast.

City councillors on the planning committee are formally objecting to the scheme because of the potential conflict between the access and the South Downs Way.

They are also worried about the potentially dangerous access from the site on to the busy A272 and the A31.

Alison Matthews, chairman of Itchen Valley Parish Council, said the oil plan was another "nail in the coffin" for the whole area stretching from Morn Hill towards Alresford.

"We have concerns that the whole area is being degraded. There is the Intech building at Morn Hill and the NTL site, where there is light pollution at night, the access roads for the Cheesefoot Head pop festival and several mobile phone masts.

"We don't mind the oil well so much as the access. The well at Avington was fairly innocuous."

Philip Windsor-Aubrey, chairman of the Upper Itchen Valley Society, said his group did not have any major concerns about the project. "There is clearly some oil lying below. But if anyone thinks we are going to have another North Sea oilfield, we are not."