Plans to open up Swindon's Front Garden to housing have won the backing of Wiltshire County Council.

After five years arguing, negotiating and consulting, the Wiltshire and Swindon Structure Plan was finally approved by the council.

The plan, which sets out future development in the county, includes the building of 3,800 new homes on green fields between the town and the M4.

The decision adds extra importance to a full meeting of Swindon Borough Council tomorrow, which will also be asked if the structure plan should be approved.

The final document was agreed on by the county council with just four votes against.

It is now likely to be formally published and Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, who has responsibility for environment, has 28 days in which to decide whether to intervene or to allow it to be adopted.

Coun John Irving (Lib Dem Southwick) told last night's meeting that it was probably the most important decision the council has to make balancing the view of "nimbys'' against the "natural greed of developers". He called for the inclusion of one buffer zone to protect 13 villages around Swindon rather than a series of smaller zones. And he asked for the wording of the plan to be strengthened so the use of brown field sites before green was obligatory rather than advisory.

Wootton Bassett North member Coun Toby Sturgis (Con) told the meeting: "Without strategic guidance from this document about development around Swindon the whole of Wiltshire will be under threat. It is very important that we control our own structure plan rather than show we cannot decide and have it called in."

Environment and transport committee chairman Coun Julian Johnson (Con Downton) said: "We have got to balance the economic well-being of Swindon against the needs of people, housing and use of the countryside."

Campaigners are threatening to take legal action in a final attempt to save the land, which is regarded as Swindon's buffer zone. Terry King, the chairman of the Front Garden Action Group (FRAG) says that if the move is given permission he will take it all the way to the High Court.

Much of the Front Garden is owned by Swindon Borough Council, which sets to earn up to £200 million from its sale.