FOR: The principle of developing the Front Garden was challenged and tested in the High Court in 2001 and a judicial review found in favour of Swindon Council

Government policy dictates that local authorities should help national housing provision and some 4.4 million new homes need to be built by 2011

It will provide Swindon's future workforce and provide a booming town with its housing needs

More people arriving in the area will help ease Swindon's current chronic skills shortage

Some 48 per cent of the Front Garden will remain undeveloped and set aside for recreational and community uses.

The force of progress cannot be halted if the Front Garden is going to be built on at some stage in the future, why not start now?

Rather than it being taken out of Swindon Council's hands altogether the authority will now be able to drive a 21st century development of quality rather than just settle for more of the same.

Four new schools and community facilities will be incorporated into the scheme so the 4,500-house community will be sustainable and not negatively impinge on traders in Old Town.

AGAINST: The council's own highways officers say that traffic on roads could increase by as much as 89 per cent.

Swindon's 10,000-house Northern Development Area is not even half finished and brownfield sites in the town centre remained undeveloped.

Should the council, which owns 74 per cent of the land, be determining this kind of planning application?

Will the Front Garden be a sustainable development or will it just become a commuter village for people wanting to live in the countryside, but work in nearby Bristol, Reading and Oxford?

Should developers be trying to create a vibrant town centre while sharing the New Swindon Company's vision of encouraging people to live in the centre of Swindon?

Loss of wildlife including Great Crested Newts, badgers and bats.

The erosion of an identified rural buffer.

Will a new southern relief road create more traffic than it elevates, especially in Old Town?

Will the public transport infrastructure be good enough to encourage people off the roads?

What will pollution and noise levels be like?

The Front Garden Action Group has amassed the support of around 10,000 people over seven years have their views been properly listened to?

Is it too risky to develop on a floodplain?