30158/6A DECISION has finally been made on the issue of a new road that has dogged a community for decades.

At a special meeting of West Wiltshire District Council's planning committee, members voted 14-2 in favour of a relief road through the Hilperton Gap, ending a 20-year saga that has split a village in half.

Chris Roberts, of the Relief Road Action Group, said: "We are delighted. It has been a long hard struggle but we got there in the end."

On the opposing side of the argument the Friends of Hilperton Gap witnessed the end of years of struggle to protect the area of green land from developers.

Steve Oldrieve from FOHG said: "I think this will devastate the area in the long term and be found to be an ineffective road because it is not going to solve the problem.

"In the long term there will still need to be another solution but, in the meantime, we will lose the Gap."

The meeting, attended by hundreds of concerned residents, was not without controversy, as some committee members felt they had no option but to vote in favour of the road after officers said there were no planning grounds on which to refuse it.

Mr Oldrieve said: "It is disappointing because I think the Friends gave reasons why it could be refused, not in terms of the local plan but under the district plan, which takes precedence.

"Many people are disappointed with the outcome and with the sense of inevitability about it."

The land is designated for a road in the local plan and was originally conceived as part of the Paxcroft Mead development.

Developer Persimmon Homes was given planning permission for the estate on the condition it provided finance for a relief road.

Objectors are worried once the road goes ahead, housing is sure to follow once the district plan is reviewed in 2011.

The FOHG put forward an alternative northern route for a bypass that could eventually link up to provide a bypass for Staverton, Trowbridge and Bradford on Avon.

The council deferred a decision on the proposal at a previous meeting in January to allow investigations into the viability of alternative routes.

A report submitted by officers states: "The council has over a long period of time considered alternative route options for the Hilperton Relief Road.

"No evidence has ever suggested that an alternative option could deliver such effective traffic relief for Hilperton village."