TOWN councillors have voted unanimously to object to proposals to build 187 new homes on land at Elizabeth Way in Trowbridge.

At their town development meeting on December 22, councillors said the Barratt Homes proposal is inadequate and does not provide a comprehensive masterplan for the site.

The Bristol-based housing developer wants to build up to 187 new homes, access, landscaping, drainage, public open space and other associated infrastructure for the new estate.

Cllr Graham Hill said: "I still have a great concern that the WHSAP (Wiltshire Housing Site Allocation Plan) defines that these combined sites need a masterplan and no masterplan exists.

"I don't know how we can recommend approval on the basis that we don't know what the combined site is going to be.

"It is like turkeys voting for Christmas. I feel unhappy voting approval for something that we only have a third of the information for."

Cllr Edward Kirk said he was concerned about the sites being broken down and the density of homes planned.

"I was at a Hilperton Parish Council meeting and they were talking about it being increased by 20 per cent. Is that not cause for objection?

Cllr Kirk was also concerned about car parking, as the new homes would back onto the Osbourne Road and Albert Road areas.

Cllr Chris Beaver urged the councillors not to get too hung up on the numbers, as the policy was only meant to be a guide.

"There does need to be a masterplan across the whole allocation. They are probably arguing that plan constitutes a masterplan."

Town clerk Lance Allan said councillors could object that the only drawing provided, which did use the word masterplan, was inadequate.

"It is a very similar drawing to those submitted by other applicants. I think in certain respects you could say that this masterplan provides insufficient detail."

Resident, Mike Townley, of Albert Road, said the three sites approved by the planning inspector were for up to 355 new homes only, not for more than.

He said the density on the south site at Elizabeth Way was far in excess of what was originally planned. "They had requested 105 new dwellings. Now they want 187, which is 78 per cent more."

On the west site, the developers requested 175 new homes and 167 have been approved. On the east site, they requested 75, of which 71 have been approved.

Councillors had to December 25 to comment and were being asked to approve a recommendation that the developer should provide the footway/cycle way links to the other parts of the site through construction right up to the actual boundary and funding to allow completion when the other parts of the site are built.

They were also recommended to ask Wiltshire Council, as landowner, to confirm whether it intends that its own parcel of land is to be retained as open space or developed at a later date and, if any development is intended, the masterplan should indicate this.

The town council says that construction and demolition should be limited to the hours 7.30am–6pm Monday to Friday and 8am-1pm on Saturday, with no construction or demolition on Sundays and Bank Holidays in accordance with the conditions imposed on the neighbouring site by Wiltshire's strategic planning committee.