Test Valley has £2.7m of government money to buy 44.5 hectares at Woodington Farm on the River Blackwater. Around 34 hectares open to walkers; a car park application is due this summer.
Test Valley Borough Council has secured £2.7 million of government funding to buy 44.5 hectares of former pig farm at Woodington Farm, Wellow, on the banks of the River Blackwater, and turn most of it into a new public green space. (Test Valley Borough Council, 10 August 2026)
Around 34 hectares of the land will become what planners call a Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace, or SANG: countryside laid out for walking, with new routes, fencing, gates, waymarking and information boards, linked into the existing rights of way network. The council says the aim is to give people more places to walk and enjoy nature while helping to protect the New Forest’s internationally important habitats, which is what a SANG is for: somewhere for new residents to walk the dog that is not the Forest.
The rest of the site’s job is invisible from the footpath. Taking the land out of farming is a piece of nutrient mitigation: the drop in fertiliser and slurry run-off is measured, verified and sold as credits that let new homes elsewhere in the Test and Itchen catchment be built without adding nitrogen to the Solent.
What has actually been decided
The council’s release, repeated the following day by the Solent Mitigation Partnership, is careful in its wording: the money is secured and “will enable” the purchase. It does not say the sale has completed, and it does not give a date for the site opening.
What it does commit to:
- 44.5 hectares bought with £2.7 million of government funding, of which around 34 hectares become SANG.
- Restoration of the former pig farm: new habitats, tree planting, improved biodiversity.
- Walking routes, fencing, gates, wayfinding and information boards, paid for from developer contributions rather than the purchase grant.
- A planning application “this summer” for the car park and the other works needed before the public can use the site (that detail is in the partnership’s version of the release, not the council’s).
At the time of writing there is no Woodington Farm application on the council’s planning portal: a search for “Woodington” returns only neighbouring farm, poultry-site and household applications, so the car park scheme has not been submitted yet. When it is, it will appear on our planning page.
The council’s release calls the £2.7 million “government funding” without naming the fund. For context, the government’s Local Nutrient Mitigation Fund exists for precisely this kind of land purchase, and its second round awarded £6.93 million to the Solent catchment in October 2024, with Fareham Borough Council, which hosts the Solent Mitigation Partnership, as the lead authority (MHCLG, 30 October 2024). Whether the Wellow money is drawn from that pot is not stated by either body.
The credits are already for sale
The mitigation side of the project is further along than the green space. The Solent Mitigation Partnership lists Land at Woodington, Wellow as a “current scheme” with 1,342.08 total nitrogen credits available, a figure it says Natural England has verified. (Solent Mitigation Partnership scheme page)
Those credits can be bought by developments in Test Valley, Southampton, Winchester, New Forest district, the New Forest National Park and East Hampshire, provided the homes sit in the Test and Itchen nutrient catchment or drain to a treatment works that does. In plain terms: housing schemes on the Romsey side of the borough that have been held up by nutrient neutrality now have a local source of mitigation, and Woodington’s soil is what makes them possible.
Who is behind it
The Solent Mitigation Partnership was set up in early 2024 through the Partnership for South Hampshire, the grouping of councils that plans growth across the area. Its other live schemes are at Stubbington in Fareham and Itchen Stoke in Winchester, with sewage-works upgrades at Dummer and Preston Candover in Basingstoke and Deane, and land at Hinton Ampner, listed as coming (Solent Mitigation Partnership, schemes list). Woodington is the only one of its listed schemes inside Test Valley.
Council leader Cllr Phil North called it “a huge opportunity for Wellow and the wider borough”, saying the project was “creating new space for people to enjoy, improving local habitats, and supporting the delivery of new homes in a responsible and sustainable way.” Cllr Alison Johnston, portfolio holder for Climate Emergency, described it as “a long-term investment in the borough’s landscape and our shared future.” Cllr Keith House, chair of the Partnership for South Hampshire, said the scheme “will create valuable new green space and long-term benefits for wildlife and local communities.”
Wellow parish covers 1,565 hectares, so the purchase amounts to close to 3% of it. The parish had a population of about 3,409 on the county council’s 2020 estimate (Wellow Parish Profile 2021, Test Valley Borough Council). The partnership places the site at Woodington, West Wellow, at the southern end of the borough and more than 20 miles by road from Andover.
What it means for you
- If you walk, run or ride around Wellow: the useful part is not the purchase but the car park application. Until it is decided and built, the site is not open; watch the planning portal for it this summer and comment if the access arrangements matter to you.
- If you live near Woodington Road: the walking routes and car park are designed to bring visitors. The planning application is where the detail on traffic, opening hours and parking capacity will first appear.
- If you are waiting on a stalled housing scheme in the south of the borough: the credits are already listed for sale, and the eligibility rules are on the partnership’s scheme page.
- If you are watching the council’s finances: the land is bought with a government grant and the works with developer contributions, so the release describes no call on council tax. Nothing has been published yet on the ongoing cost of managing the site.
We will follow the car park application when it lands and report the decision. For the wider picture on where homes are planned across the borough, see our planning page and house prices.
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