VILLAGERS in Wedhampton, near Devizes, have failed to stop a detached house and garage being built in a paddock off the High Street.

The application, which was approved by Kennet district councillors on Thursday, was smaller than the original scheme submitted by villager Christopher Harris, but the changes did not satisfy the majority of the residents, or Urchfont parish councillors.

Kennet received 25 letters of objection from Wedhampton, which has fewer than 100 residents. They complained the paddock is the only greenfield site in the heart of the village, and said the house would be detrimental to the character of the village's conservation area.

The objectors referred to Wedhampton's village statement, adopted in the Kennet district plan, which opposes all new building except on infill sites and the replacement of existing buildings.

The parish council did not consider that the paddock constituted an infill site. Parish chairman Colin Stone, the district councillor for the ward, said: "The parish council says this is not infilling and is against conservation policy, but the application has been watered down to a more compact development and is now more or less acceptable."

Coun John Booth said the committee must move with the times and the site was suitable for development. But he insisted on a condition that the proposed wooden garage was not painted matt black.

Councillors also unanimously approved another infill development in The Paddock, Urchfont.

They agreed a plan for a two-storey house with a double garage in the garden of Barton's Gate, a detached house, which was itself built in the garden of Wheelwright's, a house in High Street.