THE bid for housing on Swindon's Front Garden has taken another step forward, despite objections from some Wiltshire county councillors.

Liberal Democrats on the council launched an attack on plans to build 3,800 homes on open land between the M4 and town, which are backed by the majority Labour group on Swindon Borough Council.

Councillor John Irving (Holt) said he had largely been in favour of the draft structure plan, which identifies areas for development in the county over the next decade and which earmarks the Front Garden as an area for housing.

But, he told the county's environmental and transport committee, that doubt is now being cast on that strategy.

He said figures from the Council for the Protection of Rural England show that 3,600 homes could be built on brownfield sites before green spaces like the Front Garden are covered.

His group supported a new form of words in the structure plan referring to a sequential approach to the release of sites for development. That, said Coun Irving, would ensure that brownfield sites would be used up before attention turned to the Front Garden land.

Front Garden campaigner Terry King spoke to the committee at the meeting and referred to the flooding problems which have been evident in the past couple of days.

But planning officer Dick Owen-Smith said the flood problems had been taken into consideration.

The Lib Dem amendment was lost by six votes to five and the committee agreed that, with minor amendments, the structure plan should now go to the full council on November 21 for approval.