Packham hits out at homes

WILDLIFE presenter Chris Packham has lashed out at plans to build 5,000 homes in countryside near where he grew up as “a grotesque act of eco-vandalism”.

The BBC Springwatch host, 56, said developing the rural area near Eastleigh, Hants, was a “vanity of short-term thinking”.

He urged council chiefs to consider available brownfield sites instead.

But Keith House of Eastleigh Borough Council insisted: “We’re committed to getting the right homes in the right places.”