Campaigners fighting to save Barton Farm from development have vowed to step up their battle after another U-turn by councillors which places the site as the sole choice for the building of 2,000 new homes.

They will now carry out a massive leaflet drop across the city in a bid to gain support for their proposed legal challenge to the decision taken at Thursday night's meeting of Winchester City Council.

And they are hoping the initial drop of 7,000 postcards will raise much-needed cash for their fighting fund.

Campaigner Gavin Blackman said: "We are obviously down after last night's decision but we are not out.

"We were not surprised this has happened but we are determined to fight on -- the battle is not over."

The U-turn comes just days after another change in which the city council decided to look again at six possible sites north and east of Winchester including Littleton, South Wonston, Headbourne Worthy, Worthy Down, Kings Worthy and land as far east as St Swithuns School. Last night's U-turn is the fifth major change in recent months.

First the planners focussed on all six areas, then just Barton Farm, then the farm and Littleton, then back to Barton Farm and finally to all six until Thursday when councillors decided the farmland at Barton Farm was to be the proposed site for a reserve Major Development Area.

Mr Blackman was among 70 Barton Farm campaigners in the public gallery at the Guildhall to see the ruling Liberal Democrats split over the last-minute amendment.

The argument was not over whether councillors favoured developing Barton Farm. Most do not.

It centred on the fact that refusing to pinpoint a specific site for an MDA would invalidate the proposed Winchester local plan. That would have potentially highly damaging effects, allowing developers more freedom to put in planning applications for huge developments and reducing affordable housing.

Council leader Rodney Sabine said: "If the local plan is not certificated, then the whole area becomes vulnerable to all sorts of house builders."

Labour leader Patrick Davies said not having a valid local plan would cripple the council's efforts to insist on affordable housing being included in any new scheme.

Mr Davies said: "I don't want Barton Farm but getting a clear local plan adopted is the best way to resist the MDA."

Councillor Sheila Campbell agreed: "Developers are like wolves around the edges of Winchester. Only with a strong local plan can we defend it."

But Graham Hutton said insufficient work had been done with not enough consultation with villages such as Headbourne Worthy and Kings Worthy.

Gavin Blackman of the Save Barton Farm group urged the city council to challenge Hampshire County Council's demand that the city propose a potential reserve MDA, at north Winchester which would only be developed if needed.

Some councillors attacked the anti-development campaigners. Conservative Ian Tait said: "Nimbyism runs par excellence. Lots of people against Barton Farm live in houses built in the last 35 years."

Tory leader Fred Allgood attacked the Lib Dems: "I find the dithering quite incredible. We are now being asked to accept plan D. There is a civil war going on in the Liberal Democrats."

In the end fourteen Liberal Democrats voted against the amendment to choose Barton Farm alone. The other Lib Dems, Labour and the Tories, 29 in total, all voted in favour.

Mr Blackman said the split vote showed the need for Winchester to have its own town council.

"The city has its own unique environment with its own housing needs. he said.

"Those who voted against the amendment to choose Barton Farm were largely councillors from the city wards while those who were in favour came from wards in the outlying districts.

"We will field our own candidates in next May's local elections and a town council is one of the things we will campaign for."

Mr Blackman said the decision to make Barton Farm the sole focus for housing development did not only affect the city but had a wider impact.

"Plonking that amount of housing in one space destroys the Winchester we have today but is also fails to address the social housing need in outlying districts and does nothing to help the regeneration of villages in the outlying areas.

"Villages are crying out for affordable housing to meet the needs - it makes much more sense to share this development across the district."

The campaigners plan to mount a legal challenge, which they estimate could cost in excess of £50,000, when the draft local plan is announced in October.

If their postcard protest gathers more support they will step up the campaign to include homes across the city and outlying districts.

"If people are serious in their objections to this we think they will join us. And if we get 10,000 supporters who pledge between £5 and £10 each we can fight this."

* The 14 Lib Dems who voted against and their wards were: Richard Coleman, The Worthys; Brian Collin, Olivers Battery; George Fothergill, Littleton; John Higgins, St Barnabas; Dominic Hiscock, St Bartholomew; Graham Hutton, The Worthys; Kelsie (correct) Learney, Littleton; Ray Love, St Paul; James Maynard, St Bartholomew; Allan Mitchell, St Barnabas; Sue Nelmes, St Bartholomew; Ray Pearce, St Paul; Roy Smith, St Barnabas; Jim Wagner, Twyford.