HOPES of the pioneering Leukaemia Busters setting up a new headquarters on the edge of Eastleigh have been crushed.

Last night borough councillors went along with a recommendation from planning officers and kicked out proposals for a technological and research park in the Pitmore Copse area of Allbrook.

It would have provided a bigger base for the Southampton-based scientists who have been on the brink of a breakthrough in curing childhood leukaemia.

Leukaemia Busters' laboratory and administrative facilities would have been the centrepiece of the proposed park which would have included two other blocks of research and development buildings with 100 car parking spaces.

Eastleigh Council's development control chief Colin Peters told councillors that the Leukaemia Busters' current site was very cramped.

He said the proposed buildings for the Pitmore Copse site were of a high standard and the layout was good.

But he added that to allow the scheme would lead to development outside the urban edge and be a major breach of policy.

When the plans were unveiled more than a year ago it triggered off a storm of local protest.

Residents were worried over increases in traffic and the danger of Allbrook losing its identity if the countryside gap was swallowed up by development.

Speaking at the Easteligh Local Area Committee Councillor Marilyn Birks said she was a great enthusiast for technology research parks.

But she said: "This is not the right place for such a development and I am concerned about the amount of traffic.

"We want to help important charities like Leukaemia Busters but we cannot throw all our policy guidances out of the window."

Drs David and Bee Flavell from Southampton General Hospital have been spearheading research into a cure for the illness that claimed the life of their 10 year-old son Simon in 1990.

Leukaemia Busters needs bigger facilities for national clinical trials for a pioneering drug to combat the killer disease.