PLANS to build seven homes in Romsey have been given the green light this week.

A planning application was submitted to Test Valley Borough Council (TVBC) to erect the seven homes in Ganger Farm Lane, adding to the 275 homes which were previously given the go ahead.

The application, submitted by Barratt David Wilson Homes Southampton, will offer a mix of two and three bedroom houses, as well as two one bedroom houses.

The approved development will now provide 12 new car parking spaces.

Chairman of the Southern Area Planning Committee, cllr Mark Cooper, said: "I am content that it was approved and the application to replace two rather large houses with four smaller houses is more appropriate for first and second time buyers.

"We need more of those houses in Romsey, as the developer realised that the market for large houses on that development is not as strong as the market for the smaller houses, so this is positive."

A spokesperson from development director at Barratt Homes, Julian Jones, said: "We are delighted that the planning committee has approved our application to re-plan the Barratt phase on our Kings Chase development in Romsey.

"We can now go ahead and replace two of our larger Kingston four bedroomed homes with four three bedroomed Barwick homes to better reflect market demand and provide home buyers with a greater choice.

"Overall there will be just two more homes on the development – increasing the number from 275 to 277, although the overall space occupied by the properties is slightly reduced, when taking into account a recent earlier re-plan that replaced a street of five bed homes with the same number of four bed homes."

The planning application was approved on Tuesday, February 18, at Crosfield Hall, Broadwater Road.

As previously reported in the Romsey Advertiser, the application was criticised by Mary Stubbs, from Braishfield Road, who claimed the developer was "squeezing in more units to an already packed site".

The application was due to go before TVBC’s Southern Area Planning Committee on Tuesday, 7 January, but the meeting was cancelled due to an unresolved issue with “nitrate neutrality”, according to a spokesperson from the borough council.