THE mayor of Petersfield and three former mayors of the town have called on East Hampshire District Council to veto any plans to allow the village of Sheet to form its own parish council.

The 11th-hour call has come less than two weeks before the vital vote on whether to allow Sheet to break away from Petersfield Town Council – and in the same week that EHDC met to put the finishing touches to the plan.

"We were told on Tuesday that it was too late to do anything," said George Watkinson, the mayor of Petersfield.

He said: "The boundary for the parish is not what we wanted and is bigger than we expected."

The implications of the proposals have this week also been branded as a "retrograde step which will not benefit anybody".

For full story, see this week's Petersfield Herald.