CONTROVERSIAL plans for a 180-home estate on the edge of Malmesbury have been refused just days after a government inspector gave the town a vital chance to come up with its own blueprint for the future.

Gleeson Strategic Land’s application for land at Filands was turned down by a planning officer under delegated powers.

Wiltshire Councillor Simon Killane welcomed the decision, but warned: "We have been given a window of opportunity. We cannot rest on our laurels."

Under the county’s core strategy Malmesbury has to find space for around 270 more homes, including sheltered housing at Burnham House, and the task would fall to the neighbourhood planning steering group.

"We have got to be very assertive now to make sure we start the work of assessing where the new housing should go," he said.

"And we are going to have to make some tough decisions."

Last week a planning appeal by White Lion Land for 77 homes on land close to the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty was thrown out. Inspector Jessica Graham said Wiltshire Council could show it had a five-year supply of deliverable housing sites.

This week planning officer Tracy Smith refused the Filands application on five grounds, including the fact that it was outside the framework boundary of the town and it was premature because the core strategy and neighbourhood plan were not finalised.

She also said the development, which had included a site for a school, made no financial provision for education, public transport or maintenance of open space and lacked affordable housing.