ANGRY councillors have described a developer’s plans for hundreds of new homes as ‘shabby’ and a ‘betrayal’ of the Neighbourhood Plan.

The comments were made at a Malmesbury Town Council planning committee meeting, where representatives of Persimmon Homes were in attendance to defend their revised application for 231 homes at Backbridge Farm.

The Neighbourhood Plan recommends only 170 houses should be built on the site.

At last week’s meeting, councillor Roger Budgen, chairman of the planning committee, said: “My concern is that we very much saw this as the showpiece development for the town.

“It was an opportunity to have a development that the town could be proud of, that was future proof and gave dwellings that would be a joy for residents and incomers.

“Quite honestly, what we have here is a pretty shabby application.”

Cllr John Gundry, vice-chairman of the committee, added: “For those of us who worked on the Neighbourhood Plan; trust has been betrayed.

“This is not a good development, it is cramming in as much as you can for the sake of profit.

“We want to see a different type of development, we want to see something that is less dense, has wider roads, more parking and something that even looks like a market square.

“We didn’t object last year, we offered qualified support with conditions. Now we want to object because nothing has happened and I think we have to go down on record that overall this is not satisfactory.”

Mayor Wayne Jones told the Persimmon representatives: “There are too many houses on the plot and the ability for people to park is going to be detrimental to a conducive living environment.

"It [the application] hasn’t considered what it’s going to be like to live there.

It doesn’t fit with the NP. You’ve made changes at your level but you haven’t addressed our concerns at all.”

A representative of Persimmon Homes said: “Over the months since the original submission last year, we’ve gone through numerous meetings with Wiltshire Council’s urban design officer.

“We have gone through the NP design guide page by page with that officer and the changes really are significant in terms of the, the form and scale of the development.

"I would contest the point that not a lot has changed.”