CONTROVERSIAL plans to build 800 new homes at Northbrook Park just west of the Coxbridge roundabout were unveiled this week.

There was standing room only at Bentley Memorial Hall as residents were given the chance to quiz those behind the scheme.

The project, put forward by Nicolas James Group Ltd, is at a first draft stage and includes homes, a school, a pub, shops and employment space creating a “sustainable, self-contained community” on land off the A31.

However, for neighbouring Bentley residents, the idea has already proved contentious with hundreds attending Monday’s meeting.

Bentley Parish Council chairman Patric Curwen said the turnout shocked organisers and illustrated the extent of the local concern.

“There must have been close to 400,” he estimated.

Among them were campaigners from Bentley Action Group who believe the development is simply too large for a rural area and would completely change the nature of their village.

Residents heard East Hampshire District Council has been tasked with allocating space for thousands of new homes in the coming decades.

David Jobbins, representing Nicolas James, told attendees “growth has to happen” and large-scale development such as this comes with a variety of benefits.

Firstly it reduces the need for “sporadic” development elsewhere but also creates “less tension and less impact” on neighbouring communities and infrastructure as it comes with its own facilities.

There is also a financial benefit to other areas thanks to the Community Infrastructure Levy and a “village charter” which provides “guaranteed funding” for the new amenities.

“The parish would benefit significantly,” Mr Jobbins added.

After the meeting he told the Herald these funds would also go some way towards making things like a village pub more plausible, negating the market forces that are currently closing around two a week in Britain.

Although he insisted it is “not a garden village”, the scheme boasts the “same principle”.

This rang alarm bells for Bruce Powell, from Bentley Action Group, who feared 800 homes might be “just the beginning”.

Despite already “dwarfing” Bentley, the group actually worries the development might not be big enough to attract the benefits of a garden village which usually require around 1,500 homes to be “viable”.

Mr Powell said a development of even 800 homes would “change the fundamental character” of Bentley – a rural area with a “tranquil” nature.

“At a stroke you could destroy that,” he added.

The group aimed to “build a groundswell of objection for something we feel is very inappropriate” at the meeting and hoped local people would be moved to voice their objections to the plans.

As for the financial mitigations and promise of new facilities, Mr Powell urged people not to fall for the “honeyed words”.

The site straddles the East Hampshire and Waverley Borough Council border and, while the latter has not included it in its local plan allocation, the concern is that once the scheme takes shape, development on its side will become more likely.

Residents raised concerns about the strain on infrastructure such as schools and roads. There were also disagreements about whether or not the land poses a flood risk.

Nicolas James Group, which has owned and managed Northbrook Park for 14 years, wants to create a “beautiful” new community.

Company chairman Nicolas Roach said the scheme “would make a significant contribution to the council’s housing and employment needs”, while “reducing the requirement for sporadic, greenfield development in surrounding villages such as Bentley”.

? The site of Northbrook Park’s proposed 800-home development is located just one and a half mile from where another developer VIVID Homes exhibited plans for its own 350-home development at Coxbridge Farm this week.To find out more about the proposals at Northbrook Park go to: www.northbrookpark.consultationonline.co.uk