A public gallery packed with Liphook residents was left distraught after more than two hours of debate ended with East Hampshire District Council approving plans for 67 houses on a chicken farm.

Alistair Halliday of the South and East Liphook Residents Group, Bramshott and Liphook Parish Council chairman Cllr Sally Cameron, and Bramshott and Liphook district councillor Bill Mouland spoke against the Chiltley Lane scheme.

Mr Halliday, a Liphook resident since 1983, said: “Well, we have been here before. As you know, this poultry farm application was made 12 years ago. The East Hampshire District Council then did not support it, and we were proud to stand alongside you and your barrister when it went to appeal and was rejected.

“Nothing material has changed in the years since then, except a reduction in the total number of houses, so we find it odd that the East Hampshire District Council planners should now change their position and support a development which is known to have such shortcomings and cause significant harm to the village - by your own criteria.”

Cllr Cameron added: “This application fails to respect the Neighbourhood Development Plan, threatens to overwhelm infrastructure, and risks further gridlock in Liphook Square, a designated conservation area.

“We urge East Hampshire District Council to reject this proposal because it does not align with our community needs and statutory planning policies.”

Cllr Mouland said the application could still be turned down if the harms caused - such as residents’ lives being “made a misery” by construction traffic, and the loss of farmland - outweighed the benefits, which were “mainly the supply of houses”.

Highlighting an objection by Network Rail that water run-off might erode its railway embankment, he added: “You may think that I scaremonger and over-exaggerate about the possibility of a train full of schoolchildren crashing off the embankment because of the potential for earthworks failure becoming a horrible reality.

“But according to this report by the planning officer, the Network Rail objection is still in place.”

Cllr Mouland agreed with Cllr Cameron about the gridlocked nature of The Square, saying it was particularly bad at school peak times and that a traffic survey for the developer was done during the school holidays.

There were also 450 public objections but the planning committee passed the application by seven votes to nil because the council could not demonstrate a five-year housing land supply.

The houses will therefore be built as long as the developer meets planning permission conditions and has a parallel application for a Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace approved by the South Downs National Park Authority.

Cllr Mouland said this meant the developer had “struggled to make the proposal work” because the site chosen - Iron Hill in Hollycombe Lane, Fernhurst - is 385 yards from the edge of Liphook and 1,045 yards from the chicken farm.

It is supposed to divert new residents seeking recreation space away from the Wealden Heaths Special Protection Area, but Cllr Mouland described its location - in Chichester district and reachable only by car - as “contrived and grotesque”.