BOOS and laughter from residents greeted plans to possibly build 300 homes on a green field in Overton.

Dandara is currently acting as the promoter for development on Great North Field, west of Kingsclere Road, but is in discussion with the landowners about acting as the actual developer.

Tim Parfitt, development manager at the company, gave a presentation to a packed meeting of Overton Parish Council last Wednesday.

Villagers reacted angrily, with boos and laughter, when he told them that up to 300 homes could be built on the field.

He said: “Theoretically, that field, with 20 per cent open spaces, could accommodate up to 300 homes.”

There was applause when one member of the public responded: “It is a beautiful field. All you can see is an open space which needs houses on it – we do not agree.”

Councillor Jacky Lessware said: “I said that that was the one field where I would lie down in front of the bulldozers. I still feel that way. You will have an enormous fight on your hands.”

As previously reported in The Gazette, Overton Hill has already been earmarked for 120 homes in the draft Local Plan drawn up by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, but a further 150 homes must be built in the village.

The general consensus at the meeting was that if homes must be built, it would be better to spread them around the village rather than have them concentrated in one development.

Mr Parfitt said that if Dandara is limited to building 150 homes, the company would only use half of the site.

There were questions about how the infrastructure of the village would cope with an influx of 300 homes on a single site, and Mr Parfitt said these issues would be addressed through the commissioning of a number of reports.

He added: “We can’t ride roughshod through this.”

The meeting heard that no planning application has yet been submitted, and that the parish council talk was simply a way to listen to residents and to gather their views.

Cllr Lucy Sloane Williams asked Mr Parfitt: “How much money will you spend before you realise you do not have a choice (about building on the field)?

“I think you will find very strong opinion here. Most people are most unhappy about the allocation of housing.”