THE battle over future development in the South East came to Basingstoke as council leaders from across the region gathered to send a united message to the Government.

Leaders representing 11 county councils, including Hampshire, came to the new Merton Rise development in Popley to launch their Battle for the South East.

They expressed their fears that the Government will nearly double the number of new homes to be built in the south and will land council taxpayers with massive bills to pay for infrastructure.

The move came on the eve of the public inquiry into a key regional planning blueprint - the South East Plan - which started last week in Woking and is scheduled to last four months.

The campaigning group - South East County Leaders (SECL) - believe the Government should abide by the figures for new houses already in the plan, which was agreed by the South East England Regional Assembly (SEERA).

These would mean that a maximum of 28,900 new homes should be built in the region every year, totalling 578,000 over the next 20 years. This includes about 16,000 new homes for Basingstoke and Deane.

SECL fear the Government will ignore the plan and ask them to build up to one million homes. The county leaders say they need more Government funding for roads, sewerage and community facilities just to support the housing numbers already in the plan.

Councillor David Shakespeare, leader of Buckinghamshire County Council, who will represent SECL at the inquiry, said: "There is no offer at all from Government to pay. Our big worry is that it will simply get dumped on to council taxpayers.

"The Government set up regional assemblies to advise them on these issues. If they take no notice of that advice, there was no point in setting up these organisations in the first place."

Cllr Ken Thornber, leader of Hampshire County Council, said the Merton Rise site was an example of how future developments should be built, because the county council has pumped £40million into building facilities there.

He said: "We are putting in roads, drainage, a school and a recreational area before one brick on one house has been laid.

"People will come into a community setting, not a building site. That is what we are saying to Government."

After much controversy, the South East Plan was agreed this year by SEERA, which includes the members of SECL.

They will argue their case at the inquiry into the plan - a regional Government blueprint that will be in force until 2026.

Other bodies will put their own, separate concerns to the inquiry inspectors.

Mike Attenborough-Cox, chairman of Hampshire Police Authority, said: "The South East Plan has some glaring omissions.

"It fails to address the impact that increased housing growth and development will have on police services, and the financial implications of maintaining the same efficient and effective level of the policing service."

Edward Dawson, South East regional director of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said: "Many of the helpful policies in the plan are undermined by other policies which place the highest emphasis on economic growth.

"The countryside, the wider environment and our quality of life risk being sidelined as a result."

Development in Basingstoke and Deane is expected to be discussed at the public inquiry during sessions which will be held in Chichester on January 25 and 26, and in Reading from March 22 to 28.

The examination is expected to finish on March 30, and the inspectors will then produce a report. This will provide the main basis for Ruth Kelly, Secretary of State for communities and local government, to decide whether any changes need to be made to the South East Plan before it is issued in its final form.