EMOTIONS ran high at a Bramley Parish Council meeting on Monday as representatives from SOLVE were told they would not be getting any financial support for their fighting fund.

SOLVE – Save Our Loddon Valley Environment – a group campaigning against overdevelopment in the Loddon Valley area are hoping to raise a total of £50,000 to fund a judicial review against Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council. They are launching their effort alongside local environmental group Country Watch and have been appealing to individuals, groups and parish councils, including Bramley, for financial backing.

But chairman of the parish council, John Ferguson said the funds could not come out of taxpayers’ money raised from the parish council precept.

Speaking to the councillors before a vote was taken on the matter, he said: “If we want to support this fund it will come out of your personal purse.”

He said: “I propose that the council keep in touch with Country Watch but at this stage they take no further active part in what is going on and certainly do not invest any money in the fighting fund.”

Of the five other councillors present three were in favour and two abstained from the vote.

David Selby, a resident of Wildmoor Lane in Sherfield-on-Loddon, told the councillors: “You have made the decision before listening to us as residents of Bramley.

“We have got to be aware of how developments could affect people living here… we should be fighting development in our area.”

Some 200 homes have been earmarked to be built in Bramley by 2027 alongside wider plans to build 9,500 homes in the borough as part of the local development framework.

Cllr Rhydian Vaughan, borough councillor for Bramley and Sherfield-on-Loddon said: “People want to come here so we have to build houses. Saying no to any development is not an option.”