MALMESBURY does not want another development of hundreds of new homes on the former Lucent Technology site, but wants to see a more varied and imaginative use of the area, representatives of local groups told the architect designing the future scheme last week.

At a special meeting on Thursday called to gauge new ideas for the site, speakers from the town, district and county councils, the Malmesbury Civic Trust, the Malmesbury and St Paul's Without Residents' Association expressed growing concern at the outline plan to build work from home units.

Town councillor Charles Vernon said: "We were asked what we wanted to see on that site and come up with suggestions. But most of the groups were agreed that with the new development planned at Filands, Malmesbury does not want more new houses.

"We really would like to have some sort of industrial or commercial use but we were hoping they would put forward other fresh ideas.

"However there were no new proposals on the table. The Minton Group seems to be still going along the lines of the live/work units but they seem very woolly about just what this means and said they intended to produce further evidence to support such a scheme. But they haven't done so yet."

Iain Harrison, of Malmesbury and St Paul's Without Residents' Association said: "It's very early days. We are glad local groups have been included. We think that's a positive move. But we still have concerns about the ever increasing number of new houses in Malmesbury.

"The first meeting was promising but we have come to no conclusions. We are keeping an open mind but we are concerned about the effect on the infrastructure of the town. One of the things that was flagged up was that you would need to bring in a bus stop and make sure that buses were frequent and took you everywhere in town, the shops, GPs or sports areas.

County councillor John Thomson said: "There should be some industrial use for smaller businesses.

"But this was the first meeting to see whether it was possible to take some ideas forward. This was not to make any decisions but a part of the consultation process with Minton."

In September North Wiltshire District Council officers rejected the outline proposal for live/work homes because the development is outside the boundary of the town.