BUILDING 150 homes on the site of the former Kverneland agricultural machinery factory would unbalance the Devizes community, Kennet District Council officers told a public inquiry this week.

Strategic Land Partnerships, which acquired the site in November 2002, appealed against Kennet's decision to turn down two planning applications, one for 120 homes and a 2,000 square metre building for employment use and the other for 150 houses only.

The public inquiry at Kennet's Browfort headquarters on Tuesday and yesterday heard that the loss of so much employment land and the creation of so many new houses not included in the replacement local plan would result in more people commuting out of Devizes each morning along the already congested London Road.

This would seriously affect the town's sustainability and be contrary to the recent White Paper from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

But John Steel QC, for the developers, told planning inspector Christopher Frost that the site had been on the market for four years and there was little prospect of it being taken up for commercial or industrial use because the buildings were in such a poor state of repair.

He said that, as a brownfield site, it fitted the Government's criteria for redevelopment better than the nearby Quakers Walk site, included in the local plan, which is on agricultural land.

Mr Steel added that there was more than enough employment land to satisfy local needs at Hopton Industrial Estate and at the former Bureau West site on Horton Road.

Martin Evans, for Kennet, said that both applications ran counter to a number of the council policies in its replacement local plan, which had been adopted only ten months ago.

He said that housing development in Devizes was allowed only where it does not conflict with other uses. He said: "Clearly they are not in accordance with the local plan. If the appeal is to succeed it must be on the basis of other considerations."

He said SLP had failed to market the site to all sections of the market.

Carolyn Gibson, Kennet's senior planning assistant, said her department had been looking at the sustainability of Devizes as a whole and it is their opinion that the town would enjoy greater benefits if the Kverneland site remained as employment land.

But she was forced to agree with Mr Steel that, on the basis of the take-up of 1.07 hectares of land per year for employment use, there was enough land available at nearby Hopton Park to satisfy Devizes' needs for nearly nine years.

She agreed there are currently only 16 people employed on the site and, even at its peak, Kverneland only employed 120 staff. She also agreed that 71 per cent of the people economically active in Devizes are working in the town and that, if the site was not allocated for employment use, it would be acceptable for residential development.

Karen Whittington, a senior planning officer for Kennet District Council, told the inspector that the current industrial use of the site had no adverse impact on nearby residents. She said: "In the last ten years Kennet has received no complaints about noise on the appeal site. We are confident that any future employment development would not have any detrimental impact."

In response to SLP's claims that residential development would be more likely to protect the trees currently protected by tree preservation orders, she said: "We don't feel it automatically follows trees would be protected if there was a change to residential use. It could mean more applications for work on the trees."

Mr Frost visited the site for himself yesterday and he will report his decision in due course.