PLANS for three large areas of green space around Burton and Roeshot have been drawn up ahead of a major housing scheme.

Landowner, Meyrick Estates, have submitted proposals for the SANGs (Suitable Areas of Natural Greenspace) around the railway line near Burton.

The proposals for the three pieces of land are required to mitigate the "urban effects" of new residential development.

Plans for 850 homes at Roeshot Hill are yet to be submitted to the council.

Blueprints for the scheme unveiled to residents last year showed a mix of family housing, but failed to include a new school, medical centre and new road to the site.

The housing plans were due to be submitted this spring. A council spokesperson confirmed an application had not been received from developer Taylor Wimpey.

The sites proposed for the SANG include grazing fields between Salisbury Road and Hawthorn Road in Burton, land next to the River Mude and accessed via the railway arch and small parcels of land near the village bridleway.

The SANGs will serve the proposed new residential developments at both Roeshot and Burton, as well as other housing in Christchurch.

However, a planning statement says the SANG will not be exclusively for the use of residents on the development, but just to mitigate the impact of the housing from nearby SSSi sites.

It adds: "The commercial and intensive nature of agricultural land in the vicinity of the proposed SANG sites would suggest there are unlikely to be significant impacts.

"The area is intensive mixed farmland with recent perimeter hedging around all the fields. The rigorous trimming they receive has reduced their value to birds by keeping many of them open and low,

without the depth and variety needed by wildlife."

It says the fields across the area are "very poor ecologically", with little evidence of any protected

species.

And it states the scheme has carefully designed to co-ordinate with the "adjacent minerals proposals".

Consultation has been taken with Natural England.