A DEMAND from Hampshire County Council that it should be paid £200,000 by a developer in Ludgershall could jeopardise the creation of 1,000 new jobs at a business park in the village.

Hampshire wants the money as a contribution towards the cost of a major upgrade of the Hundred Acre roundabout junction on the A303 on the western outskirts of Andover.

Plans for the roundabout upgrade are already well advanced as part of the Andover airfield development but Hampshire thinks the Ludgershall business park will add significantly to traffic flows at this junction so a contribution is required.

But the developers in Ludgershall, the South West Regional Development Agency, says the whole development of Site 33 next to Castledown School may be unfeasible if the contribution has to be paid.

Planning officials at Kennet District Council have sided with the developers.

"If a choice has to be made between the development taking place, or highway improvements to a roundabout in Hampshire, officers have to come down on the side of the development proceeding without a requirement that the applicants have to pay an additional £200,000 to Hampshire County Council," say planners in their report.

As the scheme is a departure from the structure plan it will first have to be referred to the Government for consideration.