Going, going, gone

Campaigners who had packed Swindon's council chamber were left disappointed when councillors voted to adopt the Wiltshire Structure Plan, which will include the land for development.

Building could begin on the Front Garden, the strip of land which separates Old Town from Wroughton, as early as next summer.

Councillors voted 36 to 17 in favour of adopting the plan which will see development on the "lungs of Swindon". Those in favour crucially included a number of Conserva-tive councillors who had refused to make their opinions known before last night's vote.

During a heated five-hour debate which dragged on past midnight, tempers became frayed as councillors battled desperately for their colleagues to vote with them.

The Liberal Democrats, who were unanimously opposed to any development on the Front Garden, pleaded with their fellow councillors to vote against the structure plan.

But Labour council leader Sue Bates (Gorse Hill and Pinehurst) warned that failure to adopt the plan would send the council into planning chaos, leaving it completely open for developers to come in and submit applications to build on the land.

Swindon mayor and chairman of last night's meeting, coun Arthur Archer (Lab Gorse Hill), said: "This is probably the most important question this council will look at in the next 30 years."

The council was deciding how it could meet the target of 23,000 new homes it needs to provide before the year 2011. An independent panel from the Government's Planning inspectorate told the council earlier this year that, having looked at other possibilities such as Wanborough, South Marston and Wootton Basset, the 733-acre Front Garden was the most suitable site for development in Swindon.

Proposals for the Front Garden could see up to 3,800 homes built on the land. The development could also open the way for Swindon Town chairman Terry Brady to provide Swindon Town with a new stadium at Blagrove on the edge of the land near junction 16 of the M4. Light industrial and leisure facilities could also be built.

Liberal Democrat councillor Wendy Johnson (Old Town and Lawn) proposed an amendment to the proposal before the council to adopt the structure plan. She said the council should be committed to looking to provide accommodation needed on previously developed land and to use brownfield sites before it looked at building on any of the area's greenfield sites.

Coun Johnson said: "I am saying we should wait until the northern sector of the town has been developed and we have exhausted other possibilities, before we look to build there."

Coun Stan Pajak (Lib Dem, Eastcott), who at one point during the debate became so angry that he branded Labour councillor Keith Small (Western) a liar and told him he would see him "outside", passionately defended the Front Garden.

He said: "We are talking about destroying and desecrating a piece of Swindon's history."

Leader of the Conservative party, coun Mike Bawden, pledged he would vote against developing on the Front Garden, as he had promised to do when campaigning in this year's elections.

But many of his colleagues voted for the plan, especially those who represent areas which would be in danger of being developed if the Front Garden plans were scrapped.

Coun Bawden denied those Conservatives who had voted against the Liberal Democrats had done a u-turn on their election policies. "Those councillors who said they would vote against the development during the elections did so; none of those who voted for the structure plan said they would not in their election material," he said.

bullet/>Protesters prepare to take their fight to the High Court

"The battle has been lost but the war is not over, we can still win."

Those were the defiant words of Front Garden Action Group chairmen Terry King following last night's stormy meeting.

After the council made its decision to adopt the troubled structure plan, Mr King vowed to take the matter to the High Court in London.

He said unless Secretary of State John Prescott intervenes, he would face no other choice.

"If Mr Prescott accepts the decision made by Swindon council here toady we will take further action," he said.

Today Mr King will write a letter to the chief executive of Swindon Borough Council Paul Doherty, urging him to re-examine the appraisal on which councillors based their vote.

He claims it to be fundamentally flawed, with up to 47 errors.

He said: "Facts have been omitted from the appraisal and I am disappointed that the councillors have been knowingly or unknowingly misled right from the start.

"We consider that the appraisal is so badly flawed that there is a legal case to answer."

Mr King has already written to Mr Prescott and taken the advice of an environmental barrister in London. "We have been told that we have a very strong case," he said.

"Our intention now is to see that Mr Prescott is going to get involved."

Mr King said he was offended by comments made earlier in the meeting that the majority of Swindon residents were indifferent to development on the Front Garden.

"We do not accept that the people of Swindon have no views on the Front Garden.

"I know people from across the town who are very strongly opposed," he said.

Before the vote was cast Mr King made a final plea from the public gallery where he was backed by more than 30 members of FRAG.

He told councillors: "I have never begged before in public and I will do so now. I beg you tonight for the long term good of Swindon vote against this ridiculous proposal."

The meeting itself was peppered with interruptions from the heated FRAG supporters. At one point mayor Arthur Archer, who was chairing the meeting, told them they would be asked to leave should they heckle another councillor.

Addressing the public gallery, leader of the council Sue Bates said: "You obviously feel very strongly about this issue and I ask you to have the decency to listen to the debate."

In response to Mr King's vow to take the council to court, Coun Bates said she was confident that the council had done nothing wrong. She added that it was testament to British democratic society that FRAG are able to voice their opposition.

Other councillors praised the groups determination in its protest efforts.