18th October 2002: Only 4% of Winchester district is urban, according to the current City Council landscape assessment.

But more and more countryside is being taken over by housing and protesters fear Winchester could become another characterless suburban sprawl if the Barton Farm development goes ahead.

The countryside issue is one of the key concerns in the battle to save land north of Winchester.

For people taking take a Sunday afternoon stroll or a walk with their dogs on Barton Farm, the possibility of seeing it disappear under 2,000 houses is the most startling and obvious cause for objection.

This is the jolt that shocks Winchester residents when they hear about the plans, says Save Barton Farm group chairman, Gavin Blackman.

"Many people have been using the land for 40 or 50 years. It's somewhere you can go and relax," he said. "There are no football pitches or ugly dressing rooms. It's just countryside within easy reach of the city centre. Once it's gone, that's the end of it."

For some protesters, saving the countryside is their only goal.

The Council For The Protection of Rural England is committed to preventing the national urban sprawl which, it says, has consumed an area greater than London every decade since the 1940s.

Hampshire CPRE members in Hampshire have been carefully tracing Winchester City Council's steps in response to the call to find a reserve site.

But they say the council has gone one stage too far in identifying an area of search north of Winchester and now they want the allocation overturned.

Maggie Cole, CPRE Hampshire director, said Winchester City Council should have completed its urban capacity study before naming an area of search.

The study would show where housing could be built on existing areas, preventing the spread to greenfield sites.

"We feel it's premature to identify an area and we believe the council really has to wait until the urban capacity study has been completed," she said. "Each council has to find existing sites-and most councils have been quite surprised to discover sites which haven't been considered before."

Maggie Cole urged that people "must not be defeatist" about Barton Farm. "There are a lot of gates to go through before anything happens."

Mr Blackman added that the Save Barton Farm group would have liked to see more housing options explored before north Winchester was earmarked -such as the use of MoD land and the regeneration of villages.

He said the triangular wedge of farmland was important to the city's landscape and to build on it would alter the setting of the city for ever. The "Future of Winchester" study, commissioned by the council, identified the "green wedges" as one of the city's main characteristics.

Mr Blackman added: "This is the biggest wedge and it stands out as a major contribution to Winchester's landscape."

The landscape assessment, though it does not identify Barton Farm as an Area of Special Landscape Quality, states that the district's towns are delicately-balanced in the countryside.

"Urban areas within Winchester district are characterised by their compact nature and their interaction with the surrounding countryside," it said.

"The assessment shows that a great proportion of the landscape of the district is unspoilt by modern development, retaining its landscape features intact."

Mr Blackman also feels that the "wedge" is a vital natural barrier between Kings Worthy and Headbourne Worthy, and Weeke and Littleton.

He says the different communities north of Winchester would merge into one indistinguishable mass of housing if Barton Farm were to be built on.

Dr Adrian March, chairman of Kings Worthy Parish Council, said: "Certainly, we feel strongly about that. We are conscious that it could happen and we are not enthusiastic about it."

But Mr Blackman says other parish councils need to look again at the proposals and make stronger objections.

The Save Barton Farm group is fighting to draw people's attention to the implications of building on Barton Farm.

The pressure is piling up and the countdown to the public inquiry is under way.

Councillors are painstakingly going through the local plan; developers and protesters are making representations; the urban capacity study is being refined and the housing-needs survey has been sent out.

The issues are broad and the implications far-reaching.

Winchester City Council must find space for reserve housing, but its draft local plan, approved by councillors, says any development must "respect the particular architectural and historic qualities of the town as a whole and its landscape setting".

Protesters say that to site a reserve major development area north of the city would destroy a significant part of that precious rural setting.

The crucial Major Development Area local plan meeting is due for December; the public inquiry is scheduled for spring 2003 and a final decision on the controversy is on the horizon.

"This is not something for the future," said Mr Blackman. "It's being decided now, and it's up to Winchester people-what kind of city do they want this to be?"