IT’S the controversial blueprint that is likely to spark protests and debate in communities across a Hampshire borough.

The future of where thousands of homes are to be built in the countryside across Test Valley could be set when civic chiefs meet next week.

A document setting out where more than 10,500 houses will be built between now and 2029 will go before the borough council’s cabinet.

It comes after government planning inspector Phillip Ware deemed the document, known as the Revised Local Plan (RLP), legally “sound” last month.

The plan allocates how land will be developed across the borough and will go before Test Valley Borough Council’s cabinet for approval next Wednesday.

It will then be submitted to the full council for further debate later this month.

The plan will permit the development of more than 580 houses per year across Test Valley in the next 13 years.

Much of the borough’s future housing development will be contained within the southern area of Test Valley, where land has been allocated for a new neighbourhood at Whitenap.

The document sets out that (subject to planning permission): • A large development of 1,300 new homes would be built at Whitenap with development starting in 2019/20; • A new neighbourhood of 300 new homes would be built at Hoe Lane, on the western edge of North Baddesley in 2017/18; • There would be 50 homes at Park Farm in Stoneham to be built in 2019/20; Test Valley Borough Council’s planning policy and transport portfolio holder, Cllr Martin Hatley, pictured, described the plan as a “powerful weapon in protecting the borough from inappropriate development”.

He said: “I am absolutely delighted that the Inspector has found the Revised Local Plan sound.

“It is thanks to the hard work of officers and councillors that we are now in this position.”

But opposition councillors in Romsey have criticised the 320-page document describing it as “disappointing” and “very late”.

North Baddesley borough councillor Celia Dowden said: “The people of Romsey and southern Test Valley are being steam-rollered by the government’s pursuit of more houses at any cost and by an Andover-controlled Test Valley Borough Council that rides rough-shod over the opinions of Romsey and North Baddesley residents.”