After years of debate and protests, Swindon council has finally decided that the controversial Front Garden development will go ahead.

SWINDON planners have ended decades of uncertainty and speculation by allowing Bryant Homes to build 4,500 new homes in a £750m project on the Front Garden.

However, the historic decision made at a special planning committee meeting at the Wyvern Theatre on Saturday is not the end of the road for campaigners lobbying against the scheme.

The mammoth application will now land on Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's desk and he will either rubber-stamp the decision or call the scheme in, which would pave the way for a full-scale public inquiry.

Swindon Council had hired the Wyvern stage for around £600 in anticipation of accommodating hundreds of protesters, but in the end their cause ended with a whimper and not a bang.

No more than 100 members of the public turned up at the 617-seat capacity theatre and while more than two hours were spent allowing them to vent their spleen as to why the council should stave off development, the 12-member committee took little over an hour in arriving at its decision.

After the meeting Terry King, chairman of the Front Garden Action Group, which has campaigned against development on land sandwiched between Old Town, Okus and the M4, said: "What a farce. It was all stitched up and done before we got there and nothing anybody said from the floor was going to change their minds. It really makes you wonder about democracy.

"Four years ago we had a petition against the scheme signed by 3,000 people that's not made a difference, nor have newspaper letters, many of which were against it.

"What can the public do to influence these things? It's a very sad day for democracy, but rest assured we will be writing to Mr Prescott urging him to call it in."

Bulldozers could move onto the site as early as next year, but work is not likely to start in earnest until 2006 with the scheme finished by 2021.

What was roundly predicted to be an extremely tight vote did not turn out to be the case.

Both Liberal Democrat planning committee members Wendy Johnson (Old Town and Lawns) and Martin Wiltshire (Eastcott) were absent as was Teresa Page (Lab, St Philip).

Planners were reminded that Saturday's decision was not about the strategic allocation of land that had previously been decided but whether the application, which includes provision for four new schools, a park and ride scheme, southern relief road and assorted community facilities, is right for the Front Garden.

In the end nine councillors, including chairman Lisa Hawkes (Con, Highworth), voted in favour, two against and one abstained.

Nick Sedgwick, project manager for Bryant Homes, said: "It has been a lengthy process to get to this point. We don't believe there is a need for the application to be called in by the Deputy Prime Minister as the principle of development has clearly been established."

Giles Sheldrick