NEW plans for a controversial development site in Bradford on Avon could see as many as 130 homes built on the former industrial land.

Developer Taywood Homes proposes to nearly double the number of dwellings it intends to build at Kingston Mill when it unveils its plans next month.

Previous plans, torn apart by townspeople and planning experts in January, showed a reduction in homes from 80 to 71, but the firm has now been told it must increase density.

A spokesman for the firm said: "It is planned to build around 130 dwellings, a mixture of apartments and houses, which is an increase in density.

"It is what we are now being asked to do. The policies say there should be greater density on brownfield sites."

Cllr Priscilla Roberts, chairman of Bradford on Avon Town Council's planning committee, said the number of dwellings may be a worry for people and the council will be writing to Taywood to find out more detail.

The council has also been pushing the idea of setting up a car-share club among residents to reduce the number of additional vehicles in the centre of town.

Cllr Roberts said: "A lot is going to depend on what happens overall on the site but we do have to be very conscious of the traffic problems, they are considerable.

"We are waiting for clearer notice of exactly what the developer intends. All we can comment on now is the document they have shown us."

Taywood said the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), which branded previous plans for the site unacceptable, was also asking the firm to use more modern designs.

"The new designs will be modern rather than a pastiche of Bradford on Avon, which didn't go down well last time," she said. "These houses will be built with a modicum of wood and glass as well as stone."

More than 700 people visited the firm's exhibition at the Riverside Inn last week and 75 said they liked the new ideas. The exhibition looked at the proposed site layout and which factory buildings the developer intends to demolish.

It is proposed there will be retail and commercial areas, and some of the housing will also be on stilts to take account of the flooding risks.

Preliminary work by the new Bradford on Avon Town Development Trust, under the chairmanship of Sir Donald Maitland, has helped attract commercial interest to the site.

Two high-tech multimedia companies are interested in establishing centres there and the University of Bath wants to take on 20 one and two-bedroom units for its postgraduates.

Taywood Homes will be holding a third exhibition at the Riverside Inn on November 30 and December 1 and 2, when drawings of the plans will be unveiled.