AROUND 100 houses could be built on playing field land if Devizes School pushes ahead with its plans to sell sports pitches to a developer, it was revealed this week.

Fears about traffic congestion, pollution and noise were raised at a public meeting held at the school on Tuesday evening.

Headteacher Phil Bevan said the meeting was about consultation not confrontation and explained that talks would continue until January 28. He urged people both in favour and against the project to sell off 5.7 acres of land next to Nursteed Road to pay for a facelift for the school to fill in a form on the school’s website.

He said: “I know this is a contentious issue. But if we sell the land every penny that is raised will go back into Devizes School it will not go anywhere else in the White Horse Federation”

Dr Nicholas Capstick CEO from the White Horse Federation, which is an academy that runs Devizes School, told the audience of around 200 people that many other ways of raising more cash for the much needed improvements had been looked at. He expected the land sale to raise about £2 million.

He said: “We do not want to alienate the community.”

But auctioneer Alan Aldridge pointed out that Nursteed Road was already busy and had seen a number of serious accidents over the years. He said: “It is already a very dangerous stretch of road.”

He and others were worried that if 100 homes were built with access from Nursteed Road the problem of road safety and congestion would become much worse.

Town councillor Andy Geddes who leads the Neighbour Plan group said it had not been consulted. He said: “There has been no contact with the steering group.”

Fellow town councillor Ian Hopkins said that after playing field land was previously sold off people were promised this was a one off decision and would not be repeated.

He said: “Those assurances and pledges have been broken.”

Mr Bevan told the Gazette when the project was first announced two weeks ago that the school had many neglected areas that were in urgent need of an upgrade.

He said: “This is a very exciting project which we hope can benefit not just the school but the whole Devizes community. There are a number of areas in the school that need improving such as the hall, changing rooms and art and drama spaces.

Just hours before the meeting was held hundreds of students staged a Save Our Playing Field protest.