A MAJOR rethink could be on the cards by Whitehill Town Council over its controversial decision to suggest that homes could be built on a site in Hollywater.

A key advisory group is to re-examine the future of the Walldown Triangle and decide whether the town council should still support the building of houses on the land - a policy which the town council suggested in the first instance.

The potential change of heart comes as a direct result of decisions and announcements affecting Ministry of Defence land in Bordon.

Recently a planning inspector overturned a planning decision and gave the MoD planning permission to convert the RE Lines site and St Lucia Lodge into around 60 homes.

The MoD has also confirmed to the district council that it intends to leave Bordon by 2007, resulting in large parcels of land becoming available for redevelopment.

"With the recent announcement by the MoD regarding sites in the area and what is happening to other sites it is very important that we look at this Walldown Triangle problem again," Don Mayes said at a town council meeting this week.

"We know that there are a lot of people against it.

"We have been reasonable about the number of houses on that site, but in light of recent announcements we should change that."

Previously the council's development advisory group examined the problem of where to put new homes in the town, fearful that the district council will pick unsuitable sites.

After much discussion the group recommended to the town council that land at the former Moorlands site would be suitable for homes, along with the wedged-shape piece of land in between Walldown Road, Liphook Road and Whitehill Park known as the Walldown Triangle.

Zoya Faddy explained: "We decided to take a proactive approach and suggested the Walldown Triangle because most of it is a landfill site anyway, but most of the trees have grown up since then.

"We need bigger housing in bigger plots like those in Walldown Road and we thought that they would fit into the area well."

But she told Monday's meeting that while the town council had suggested only 30 homes for the site, the district council has suggested that the site be allocated for up to 60 homes in the emerging local plan.

The site's future will be debated at the ongoing public inquiry into the local plan, which will shape development in the district over the next decade.

In the light of recent decisions the town council now has the option of arguing at the local plan inquiry that there is enough extra land to limit building on the triangle to 30 homes, or for housing development plans to be scrapped altogether.

Zoya Faddy explained: "This situation has evolved from when we first suggested the allocation of this site.

"We now know that there are other MoD sites sites coming on stream so we should reevaluate our views and come back to this council for a decision, but we have to do this quickly because of the local plan inquiry."

Neil Ockenden said: "Army land should go a long way to relieving the pressure on the Walldown site.

"We really have to argue this very strongly but it will be up to the next council to take this forward."

The council unanimously agreed that the advisory group should look again at the situation, hopefully at the end of this month so that a recommendation can be made to the town council as soon as possible.