THE building of up to 158 homes on the former allotment land at Spitalcroft could harm the sustainability of Devizes as a community, a public inquiry was told this week.

Ed White, Kennet District Council's forward planning officer, said that number of additional homes, without further job opportunities, would upset the fragile balance in the town.

Robert Hitchins Homes is appealing against the refusal of its latest outline plan to build between 130 and 158 homes.

Craig Howell Williams, a barrister acting for Hitchins, said Mr White's approach was fundamentally flawed.

He said the Devizes community was healthy and could easily support housing on the Spitalcroft site and added there was already a shortfall of 426 in the 7,000 homes that had been allocated for Kennet up to 2011.

Mr White, however, argued that Devizes was only healthy because successive local plans had limited development to a level the town could support.

"There is no reason to believe we won't see other sites developed by the end of the plan period," he said.

"The building of 150 homes on the Spitalcroft site could lead to over-supply of houses in the town. Small sites are coming forward quicker than was anticipated in the local plan."

Mr Howell Williams said this was another example of the council changing its case as it went along. He said: "There is a chasm between us, Mr White."

He used census evidence from a report submitted by the Save Our Spitalcroft community action group to show that there has only been a slight fall in the percentage of people living in the town who also work in the immediate area from 49.4 per cent in 1991 to 46.2 per cent in 2001.

He said: "It could not conceivably be argued that that these figures indicate any fragility in the self-contained nature of Devizes."

The crux of the inquiry, however, will be on whether Hitchins has offered an adequate alternative piece of allotment land.

It has purchased a piece of land off Windsor Drive and wants it to be used as allotment land, with landscaping, huts and an access road. The freehold would be given to Devizes Town Council, which has a statutory duty to provide allotments.

But members of Save Our Spitalcroft insist that the land is not of equal quality and a report prepared for the group by Bill Butterworth of Land Network, also concludes the site is inferior.

His report said: "I am of the view that the proposed Windsor Drive allotment site is dramatically inferior to the Spitalcroft site and is merely a ploy to divert attention from the central issue of an established allotment site in a designated area of open space."

Members of Save Our Spitalcroft and other local residents are due to give evidence to the public inquiry today.

Other evidence will include material from a traffic survey, which shows that traffic along London Road increased by 20 per cent over the last four years.

The survey concludes that this situation can only get worse if planning approval for Spitalcroft is granted.

The town council is still investigating the possibilities of making a compulsory purchase order on the land.

However, if the appeal is upheld it would render the purchase financially and legally unfeasible.

The inquiry which was originally due to end today, could continue tomorrow morning. Planning inspector Ray Wilcox is likely to publish his decision in the next six weeks.