A CAMPAIGN to block housing development in a popular Bransgore pub car park moved a stage further with a protest outside the premises.

Pints have been pulled at the Carpenters Arms for more than a century.

But protesters say the pub's days will be numbered if nine terraced homes are built on the car park.

Inntown Properties, which now owns the former Eldridge Pope pub in Burley Road, plans to provide replacement car parking by paving over the garden and play area behind the building.

Bill Cotton, chairman of the village residents' association, said on Saturday night he had counted 77 pro forma letters of protest.

"Then there are 44 personal letters and there was one where the majority of people in Westbury Close had signed a united letter, and that's apart from all the people who have written directly to New Forest District Council at Lyndhurst," he said.

Some people are writing to all members of the district council's planning development committee.

"I think they will be quite taken at the planning meeting when they hear the strength of protest," said Mr Cotton.

"Putting nine houses there will strangle the pub.

"Without the garden the pub will have lost its family aspect which is a very important financial consideration and the parking they are designing will only give 20 spaces for the public," he claimed.

Westbury Close residents predict that pub-goers will park their vehicles in their road, taking up valuable parking spaces.

Bransgore Parish Council is holding a special meeting to discuss the issue in the village hall at 7.30pm on Wednesday.

The residents' association has a similar meeting planned for the same venue on the evening of Monday October 25. District council planning officer Graham Ashworth has been invited to speak on the matter.

Inntown's planning consultant Jerry Davies has denied the proposed development will prejudice the future of the pub.

He also said the two-bedroom homes are needed in the village.

First published: September 28