ANGRY Malmesbury residents expressed their concerns about controversial plans for 180 new homes when they were given the chance to grill the developer.

More than 50 people attended a special Malmesbury Town Council planning meeting last week where representatives of Bloor Homes were asked to present their plans for the 180-home Filands development.

The original plans were passed on appeal at the High Court last year after being repeatedly refused by Wiltshire Council, and last month a new reserved matters application was made to the council, detailing the road layout, drainage and housing placement.

The decision to submit the latest plans was criticised by the town council and residents as they didn’t believe they had been properly consulted over flooding and traffic issues concerning the site which is north of Reeds Farm housing estate and east of Dyson’s headquarters in the town.

At the meeting on June 24, representatives of Bloor Homes gave a presentation on the development and residents had a chance to air their concerns and ask questions.

Among those voicing concerns was planning committee member Sue Poole, who asked the developers if they could ensure that the plans would not add to flooding caused by run-off of rain water at the nearby Reeds Farm estate.

Daryl Richardson, a representative for Bloor Homes responded by saying that the  now hits the culverts in one go but under the proposed scheme, pressure will be eased as it will be slowed and over 95 per cent of the water in extreme storm events would be diverted from the existing inadequate drains into the adopted storm drains.

Other concerns that the residents have Bloor Homes are proposing that a road through the development will link up with Webb Road on the nearby Reed housing estate and that will create more traffic.

A number of residents also asked if the connection to Webbs Way could be restricted to bus and emergency vehicles only and closed to all other traffic.

Andrew Driscoll, a senior land director for Bloor Homes said after the meeting: “ Providing the highways authority has no objections, we are happy with this suggestion.”

A decision on whether to recommend that Wiltshire council passes the plans will be made at the Malmesbury Town Council planning meeting on July 14 and chairman of the committee Roger Budgen said that it is unlikely that the council will recommended that the plans are passed.

“Bloor were able to hear the concerns and hopefully they will be able to address them, hopefully by revisiting proposals,” he said.

“As it stands now we will be opposing them.”

Wayne Jones, a councillor on the planning committee, said : “Bloor Homes were very receptive to the concerns, they could understand what the residents were saying and want to make sure they can deliver that to the benefit of the community as a whole.”

Residents are now being asked to send their views to the council and their comments will be used to formulate Malmesbury Town Council’s letter of response on the application to Malmesbury Town Council.

To add comments on the application visit wiltshire.gov.uk/planninganddevelopment/ourplanningservices.htm and then search for the application reference number 15/05015/REM To submit views to the town council email the clerk to the planning committee at j.whittleton@malmesbury.gov.uk by July 9.