GAZETTE & HERALD: Councillors opposing a housing development on the former Flowers scrapyard site in Chippenham say they can do nothing to stop it going ahead but they are still unhappy about it.

Chippenham Town Council objected to plans to sell the Wood Lane site for housing, preferring mixed retail, leisure and residential use instead.

But North Wiltshire District Council agreed to sell the town centre land to Barratt Homes and passed outline planning permission for housing.

Barratt Homes has now submitted a detailed planning application for 83 dwellings, roads and sewers on the site.

The town council believes the application will be passed by the district development control committee, despite objections.

"The town council are resigned but we are not happy. There is not much more we can do about it. We have been totally ignored. We have been stitched up once again," said Chippenham Mayor Desna Allen.

She said the problem was that once houses were built on the land it could not be used for anything else. But if the site was used for retail or leisure it would be more adaptable and could be changed to residential use in the future.

"I find it very depressing that we have a vision for the town centre and they chip away at it and erode the vision," said Coun Allen.

"I know people need houses but it is where they put them that is the problem," she said.

The planning process has taken some three years, because of the issues facing any developer on the brownfield site, such as the possibility of contamination and noise from the Hygrade factory.

The Flowers family originally applied for permission to build up to 80 houses on the 1.78 hectare site, with a small portion of the site close to Gladstone Road for retail and business use.

Chippenham Town Council fought to see the site developed as an extension to the town centre, with shops, business and leisure uses. But outline permission was granted for a major housing development with only a small proportion of retail. The site, now renamed Saxon Gate, will also include 25 per cent affordable housing.

Former town councillor Sandie Webb said "Other people are determining what our town is going to be."