A CONTROVERSIAL housing development is set to go ahead, despite strong local objections, after the High Court ruled against Swindon Borough Council.

The Berkeley Farm development, which will see 100 homes built off Swindon Road in Wroughton, was first proposed in 2014.

After passionate local opposition, the council planning committee rejected that initial application.

The company behind the bid, Ainscough, appealed the decision last year and in January it was announced that they had been successful.

Swindon Borough Council then took the matter to the High Court, but on April 12 they heard their request to appeal had been refused on the basis that their grounds were ‘not arguable’.

Cabinet Member for Communities and Strategic Planning, Toby Elliott (Con, Priory Vale), said: “I am incredibly disappointed after all the hard work that has been done.

“We were right to take this to the High Court, they have decided that our case is not strong enough this time but we had to defend our local plan.

“We are one of the few local authorities with an adopted local plan and we have followed the rules entirely on this application – it is all very frustrating.”

The council planning committee initially rejected the application as it fell outside the area of land set aside for housing in the agreed local plan.

However, the developer argued that the absence of a reliable five year supply of housing throughout the borough meant that the local plan ceased to take precedence and any appeal would inevitably be successful.

Despite the overwhelming local concerns, their prediction proved to be correct and the application was allowed to proceed at the appeal stage.

The High Court decision will cause concern among residents ahead of a similar appeal by Hannick Homes, whose application to build 103 homes off the nearby Marlborough Road was originally rejected in October last year.

Coun Elliott added: “There are clear differences between the two developments – I have already actioned that our legal team will start working on the Marlborough Road appeal now so we are in a better position to defend it.”

The government claimed that local plans would give residents more power to determine where and how development took place; however loopholes such as the five year housing supply requirement are rendering them increasingly ineffective against developers.

Shadow Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning, Jim Robbins (Lab, Mannington and Western), said: “Swindon Council has ended up spending tens of thousands of pounds on this planning application with nothing to show for it, despite Labour’s repeated calls to not waste this money.

“This has been an utter mess and arguably means that Swindon’s local plan isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. So much for the Conservative Government claiming they wanted to localise planning.

“In actual fact they’ve centralised every planning decision and are perfectly happy to ignore local residents. With the decision of another planning application for homes in Wroughton pending, it is only a matter of time before the government steps in to approve even more homes in Wroughton.”