A SPECIAL study of housing sites in towns may have saved Petersfield from the threat of massive new developments.

East Hampshire District Council planners are this week unveiling their long-awaited Urban Capacity Study, with recommended housing sites throughout the district for 2,125 homes in the next ten years.

Of these, 1,500 of will be on reserved sites which will only come forward if monitoring of the housing market shows they are required.

The study was carried out in a bid to save some of East Hampshire's green field sites from development in the next local plan.

Before it was carried out, planners were recommending that 430 homes should be built in Petersfield in the next ten years on two sites – at Pennsfield and The Causeway.

But the study has shown that room for many homes can be found in Petersfield and other East Hampshire towns by reviewing existing housing allocations, converting, infilling, subdividing, using small sites and looking at accommodation above shops.

This means that plans to build 330 new homes on The Causeway in Petersfield could go on the back burner.

Planners are urging that the site is removed to the reserved list and 275 houses built there only if necessary.

But they are still putting forward the controversial town council-owned site at Pennsfield for inclusion in the local plan for housing.

Previously, officers were recommending that 90 homes should be built on a four-hectare site behind Heathfield and Barnfield Road.

In line with the government's planning guidelines to look at higher densities, officers are now putting forward plans for 80 homes on a smaller three-hectare area.

District councillors have already spent two nights this week debating the massive document which has been produced by their policy planners and which includes sites all over East Hampshire.

They will be holding a third session tonight (Friday), continuing to look at recommended housing allocations throughout the district.

East Hampshire District Council has suffered several delays in compiling its local plan because of the requirement for an urban capacity study and new housing figures brought forward in the county council's structure plan.

Planners have also had to study nearly 5,500 responses to the first draft of their local plan.

In their report to the development panel this week, councillors are told that of the 5,368 responses, half related to housing allocations.

The officers reported that although the housing requirement had altered, the sites recommended throughout the district for allocation were not drastically different from their first draft.

"The comments of the respondents have all been carefully considered and in a number of cases the points raised have led to some allocations being recommended for deletion," says the report.

These sites include Wyld Green Farm at Liss.

Officers are recommending that the increase in overall numbers should be achieved through greater use of small developments in the new settlement policy boundaries.

Councillors are expected to put the latest draft of the local plan out for further consultation before the end of the year.