A BID is to go to the Lottery for funding to move the county record office to Chippenham despite users voting overwhelmingly for it to remain in Trowbridge.

Wiltshire County Council's cabinet gave its approval for a lottery bid on Thursday in a week when a survey of users carried out at the office itself showed that 36 per cent favoured Trowbridge as a location, with just six per cent giving Chippenham their votes.

Glyn Bridges, town councillor and vice-chairman of the Trowbridge and District Civic Society, spoke against the selection of the Chippenham site at Thursday's cabinet meeting.

He said: "The selection appears to have nothing to do with the wishes and needs of record office users, the people who will be most affected by the relocation."

The location of the new office has caused controversy throughout the county and protesters have vowed to carry on the fight to keep it in the county town.

They claim that Trow-bridge was not fairly considered and that access to the site at Chippenham is not good enough for the office to be located there.

A record office user who addressed the meeting said Cocklebury Road site could not handle more traffic.

David Colcombe said: "No building design can possibly rectify the problems with access within the town.

"Traffic from much of Wiltshire to a record office on the Cocklebury Road site would have to go through the most congested area of Chippenham."

Despite these appeals the cabinet decided to press ahead with the bid for up to £5 million in funding.

Cabinet member Jane Scott said: "The new record office and heritage centre will provide a secure, permanent home for Wiltshire and Swindon's archives and heritage services and will ensure that the records remain within the county.

"The new facility will provide an improved service with significant benefits for the public, schools and colleges, and will guarantee that current and future generations can continue to have access to the county's records."

The new centre will also house a local studies library, the archaeology service, the museums and conservation services and the Wiltshire building's record.

The improved facilities are also to include new conservation laboratories and a digitalised room where electronic copies of the archives will be created and made available to the public through CD ROMS and over the internet.