THE future vision for how the next phase of Marlborough Park could look was unveiled by developers yesterday (Monday).

Property developer ZeroC hosted a consultation event with architect Ben Pentreath at Broome Manor Golf Club on Monday as they unveiled plans for the next phase of the development while seeking views of nearby residents.

The scheme was first put forward in 2004, and proposed up to 700 homes within a landscaped setting. The first phase of the development – which is made up of 204 homes – was completed in 2010.

Now, developer ZeroC has revealed the latest proposal for the remainder of the site which outlines 392 homes, of which 30 per cent will be affordable homes.

Previous plans for a care home have been replaced with 78 age-restricted retirement properties, of which 33 will be bungalows.

Rob Illingworth, associate of architects Ben Pentreath, said: “Hopefully the first phase of Marlborough Park has been quite successful and we are taking a lot of what was good about that, but tweaking it.

“We are trying to create houses that have big windows, built with good quality materials, and where possible houses with big gardens.

"It is trying to take the good parts of the masterplan and revisit it for the new scheme.”

Kate Baker of ZeroC said the developer was keen to hear what residents had to say about the plans before they were submitted for approval.

She said: “We are looking at how we can improve the scheme from a sales perspective and for local residents. We have decreased the density of housing, decreasing the number of dwellings from 405 to 392.

“They will range from two to five bed properties, and there will be affordable housing which will be pepper-potted throughout the scheme.

“We were keen to host the consultation event to get peoples’ reactions to the plan. If they have any comments or anything that they think we can improve upon then we’re taking them onboard and seeing if we can integrate them. It is not a set plan at the moment - it is in motion which is why we hold the event so we can get people on board.”

She added most of the residents who visited the consultation earlier in the day were local residents “I think generally their views have been good,” she said. “Obviously there are a few tweaks that we could probably make in respect to peoples’ present properties, but these are all things that could be integrated at this stage.

“If the planning process all goes to plan goes well we would want to be on site mid next year.”

ZeroC plans to submit its plans to Swindon Borough Council for consideration next month, although there is still time for residents to have their say by visiting marlborough-park.co.uk.