The area earmarked for the marinaPLANS for a new marina on the Kennet and Avon Canal at Crofton have won little support from residents, councillors and environmental groups.

Among those objecting to the planning application by the Crofton Marina Partnership are Grafton Parish Council and the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust.

More than 100 people crowded into a public meeting in the Coronation Hall at East Grafton to discuss the plans on Wednesday last week.

The following night Grafton Parish Council voted unanimously to object, said chairman Vanessa Fleckney.

The planning application is for 120 non-residential moorings on a new basin that would be excavated at Freewarren Farm close to the wildlife reserve at Wilton Water, also known locally as Wide Water.

Three pairs of rare gadwell ducks nested at Wilton Water last year and naturalists fear they would be driven away by any increase in activity.

The Kennet and Avon Canal Trust, which runs the Crofton Pumping Station on the opposite bank of the canal, said a marina would blight the cherished view across the Wilton Water and open countryside.

Trust chairman Brian Poulton said: "We are objecting to the planning application as submitted because we find the document is an inaccurate, incomplete and immature document."

Mr Poulton said there were a number of issues the trust did not think the applicants had thought through enough. The biggest concern was the proposed link between the canal and the new basin that would have to be excavated and flooded to provide the marina.

"This is the key to the whole thing," said Mr Poulton. "We are concerned about the contamination of the water because there is no sight of a waste management plan."

Besides the practical issue of water supply at the very summit of the canal, the proposed site was in the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural beauty.

"We as owners of the Crofton Pumping Station have gone to great extraordinary lengths over the years to protect the view from it," said Mr Poulton.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England is also opposed to the application. Its local spokesman John Kirkman said: "CPRE Kennet group objects to this development in such a prized location in the AONB.

"It is contrary to the local plan and would cause an undesirable increase in traffic on the narrow roads in the area, and would have an unsustainable impact on the water resources of the canal."

Grafton parish councillors took the view, said Coun Fleckney, that the proposal was contrary to Kennet's local plan policies; ecology and wildlife would be affected; light pollution from illuminations necessary at a marina was another fear and councillors were concerned about water availability.

They were also worried a marina would bring a lot more traffic onto the narrow roads in the area. Coun Fleckney said to reach the marina boat users would have to use one of three routes, through Dark Lane from east Grafton, along the Burbage to Wolfhall lane or the Great Bedwyn to Crofton road.

She added that Wiltshire Highways had raised no objection so far to the application.

Adjacent land owner Peter Lemon of Manor Farm, Wilton, said: "Our main concern is the water levels in Wilton Water."

He said a large amount of water would be needed to fill the marina basin and any increase in boat traffic on the canal would take more water.

Mr Lemon said every boat travelling east from the marina would transfer 70,000 gallons of water each time it passed through a lock but, unlike the western canal stretch from the Caen Hill flight, there was no back-pumping facility to return water to the summit.

Springs that keep Wilton water full were running at probably one-third of their output 20 years ago, Mr Lemon said, because of increased abstraction of water from boreholes.

The farmer said: "I think what will happen if the marina gets planning permission for 120 boats is that the poor chaps when they want to go for a trip on the canal will not be able to because there will not be enough water."

The Gazette was unable to contact the Crofton Marina Partnership for comment on the application and there was no-one at the Oxford offices of its agents Atkins and Brown.