Residents were surprised to hear that only a small amount of motorists from outside Devizes contributed to the town's traffic congestion.

Some expressed disbelief at the figures given from traffic surveys carried out by Wiltshire County Council's highways consultants Mouchel Parkman.

Nick Helps, from Mouchel Parkman, told a public meeting organised by Devizes Guardians in the town hall last Thursday, that at the morning peak ten per cent of journeys in Devizes were through traffic. A total of 35 per cent of journeys were internal trips in Devizes while 55 per cent were drivers coming into Devizes from outside.

A man, who is a voluntary driver taking people to hospital, said: "I am surprised at the low density of traffic in Devizes, I can't believe the figures."

Another man said: "I question the robustness of the data collection. I have serious doubts about the ten per cent of through journeys."

Mr Helps said the data they had collected last year was high quality and could be trusted.

Mouchel Parkman have used the data together with the expected building of an additional 1,686 houses in Devizes to produce a computer simulated model that shows the traffic flow in the town.

Mr Helps was greeted with more scepticism when he said a bypass to the north of Devizes was not the answer to Devizes' traffic problems.

He said the projections carried out on the data they collected was that a bypass would not cut congestion to any great extent and it would not be worth the expense of building a bypass.

He said the only favourable option was to install traffic lights at three junctions - Dunkirk Hill, Brewery Corner and Gains Lane gyratory - and look at turning mini roundabouts between Brickley Lane and Dunkirk Hill into T-junctions.

Mr Helps said: "Having a bypass does attract local trips to it, it does take some traffic off the network but not enough to affect congestion."

Judy Rose, secretary of Devizes Guardians, said there needed to be more buses on the road to encourage people to leave their cars at home.

County councillor Toby Sturgis who chaired the meeting said the county council were constrained by their budget and could not "blindly subsidise buses."

Following the meeting a county council spokesman said there was no date for when traffic lights could be installed and said the findings by Mouchel Parkman would be used to draw up a new local transport plan for Devizes.