THE proposal to build 1,100 houses on a greenfield site in Romsey was turned into a political football when Conservatives used it to attack Labour's national housing targets.

But the Tory media event went awry when a passing cyclist stopped to confront the politicians.

David Johnson objected to the Conservatives trying to score points from a problem he claimed they helped create. He told Conservative Party chairman Michael Ancram: "I've lived here since the early 50s and I've watched what's happened and I know who is responsible."

But Mr Ancram said the solution to the housing problem was not an arbitrary national target but a policy of regenerating the city to make it more attractive than escaping to the countryside.

He had joined prospective Romsey parliamentary candidate Paul Raynes to criticise housing targets in Hampshire.

Mr Raynes said: "Labour and their Liberal helpers have forced southern Test Valley to take 1,400 new houses."