Villagers are expected to turn out in force to fight proposals for an 18-hole golf course in Yatton Keynell at a planning appeal, which continues today.

More than 50 people attended the start of the appeal in June, but the hearing was adjourned after two days for planning inspector Richard McCoy to carry out a site inspection.

Wiltshire Council refused plans to extend the golf academy to incorporate a par three course in July last year, but developers Keep Future Leisure Ltd appealed against the decision.

Dozens of residents attended the start of the planning appeal angered because the plan calls for nearly 148,000 cubic metres of inert waste material to be shipped in to create contours on the course.

This would include soil, glass, concrete, bricks and stones from gardens and parks.

In opening the appeal planning inspector Richard McCoy said he had received 63 letters and emails of objection to the proposal from residents and parish councillors in Yatton Keynell and Chippenham Without, and three in support.

Speaking on the opening day of the inquiry Will Lawton, of Grove Lane, said: “We have come to stop a lot of waste being tipped onto the site by the golf course and on the entrance to Yatton Keynell.

“I would like to see this site maintained as a productive piece of farmland.

“I fear the driving force behind this golf course is financial, and feel the proposal is weak from an ethical and environmental viewpoint.

“Despite planning officers’ recommendations to grant planning permission last summer, councillors turned the application down, arguing that importing such a large amount of inert material was creating a waste disposal site and not a golf course. “ Lord Tom King wrote to planning inspector Richard McCoy with fears the golf course would never be completed.

“What happens when the waste has been delivered and the maximum financial benefit has been accrued?” he asked.

“The appellants have to decide ‘Do we go ahead with the golf course and is it viable?’”

Last year planning officers at Wiltshire Council were left red faced when they were forced to pull the planning application from the list as they had wrongly printed it was recommended to be refused rather than granted.

The inquiry begins again at 9.30am at Monkton Park in Chippenham.