A RADICAL proposal to demolish homes in the Borough Grove area of Petersfield and build double the number of houses, has been put forward this week.

East Hampshire district councillors and residents of the area were asked at a meeting of the central area community committee on Tuesday, to come up with suggested sites for new houses which could be included in the latest review of the Local Plan.

Throughout the East Hampshire district, planners are faced with finding sites for 5,500 new houses and so called "reserved sites" for a further 1500 homes if these become needed over the next ten years".

They are desperately looking for brownfield sites inside village and town boundaries in a bid to save the green fields of the district.

Petersfield District councillor John Crowhurst told the meeting there were precast concrete homes in Borough Grove which had been built in the early l950s which were "past their sell-by date".

He said there were also homes in Grange Road and a number in Cranford Road which were "sub-standard by today's standards."

"There is a lot of potential here to pull these down and build new homes. We could double the amount of housing in the area," he said.

Principal policy planner Alistair Speirs told The Herald: " Any sites we identify in our Urban Capacity Study would only come forward if the landowner is willing for it to be re-developed. We would consult landowners to find out if there was any likelihood of the site coming forward in the plan period."

Several possible housing sites were suggested by a Petersfield resident, including the Unigate dairy depot in Station Road, the Diametric site on Ramshill, the telephone exchange in Charles Street and the former organ factory in Rushes Road whose future is uncertain at present.

Petersfield District councillor Teresa Jamieson also put forward a site close to the new McDonald's west of Petersfield and suggested more homes could be built at Meon House in College Street,and on the Hampshire County Council depot in Borough Road.

She suggested that the Swan Street car park should be tiered and told the meeting: "There is a lot of capacity for shops with flats above them in this town."

At West Liss, district and parish councillor Sue Halstead put forward Sparkham's Yard industrial site as a suitable site for homes as well as Smith's Garage in the centre of the village and Pike's yard opposite.

"Both these village centre sites should be looked at for housing," said Mrs Halstead.

She said there was potential for converting farm buildings in Wyld Green Lane for homes and also for "low- profile single-storey homes in Inwood Road.

The Hollywood House site in Liss could provide some homes, despite the restrictions imposed by the neighbouring Site of Interest for Nature Conservation.

Mrs Halstead added: "More radical is the suggestion to redevelop the Woodbourne Close estate and The Roundabouts which were very poorly designed."

Philippa Tyrwhitt-Drake, district councillor for East Meon and Langrish, said land at Leydene Park could provide more homes and the future of Ramsdean House at Langrish was also now uncertain.

Alison Wood, EHDC's planning policy manager, told the meeting all the sites which had been suggested would be visited by planners and examined for housing suitability.

The consultation exercise by planners this week was part of a painstaking Urban Capacity Study search they are carrying out in a bid to find sites for new homes inside village and town boundaries.

The search is being undertaken in a desperate bid to save the district's green fields from development as policy planners struggle to find sites in East Hampshire for as many as 7,000 homes in the latest local plan.

They hope to put their proposals for housing sites in the new Local Plan before district councillors later this year.