Whitehill district councillor and environmentalist Adam Carew has joined the campaign to save Standford Grange Farm in Headley.

Hampshire County Council has proposed using 25 acres – around a quarter of the area of the publicly-owned farm – as a Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace (SANG) for use by people who would live in the 146 homes proposed for the former Mill Chase School site.

That is controversial, with fears for the viability of the farm expressed by East Hampshire District Council leader and Headley councillor Richard Millard, but the possibility that the site may even be used for more housing has created greater anger.

Cllr Carew said: “Cllr Millard is absolutely right, there must be no housing whatsoever on Standford Grange Farm. This is something I have always opposed and why I was not able to chair the item on East Hampshire District Council’s emerging Local Plan last year when I was chairman of the district council, having been on public record of always opposing it from when the appalling idea was first proposed what must be some 17 years ago.”

At an extraordinary meeting of Whitehill Town Council’s executive committee last Thursday, the town council agreed its policy was now to allow access to the Deadwater Valley Local Nature Reserve from the Mill Chase houses, subject to it agreeing any proposal for this, if it would reduce the size of the SANG at Standford Grange Farm.