PLANS to create an anglers' paradise outside of Wootton Bassett have been refused.

Farmer Gordon Hunt wanted to build three fishing lakes on nearly four hectares of land at Ballards Ash Farm on Flaxlands outside Wootton Bassett.

But North Wiltshire District Council refused the application at a planning meeting on Wednesday night on the grounds it would create too much traffic along the narrow lane.

The farmer wanted to build the lakes as a way of diversifying away from beef farming.

He now says that he will appeal against the decision once he has had the official refusal from the council.

He said: "At this stage I am definitely going to appeal if the only problem with the application is the access to the site.

"I know of at least two other sites where there is worse access.

"The people who would use the lakes would not all be coming at the same time and they would all stay for a long time. The traffic these lakes would create would be totally minimal."

The proposal would have enabled 45 anglers to use the site at any one time and would have meant that a single storey building would have been put up for a ticket office, a tackle shop and toilet facilities.

It would have also involved 34 car parking spaces, the construction of an earth mound on the southern boundary of the site to screen against traffic from the M4, and a detailed landscaping scheme.

The main objector to the plan was the Highway Authority, which felt the traffic generated from the commercial fishing lakes would have been too much for the road leading to it.