DEVELOPERS hoping to keep a controversial link road in Royal Wootton Bassett have come up with a compromise after residents suggested an alternative plan.

Oxford University Endowment wants planning permission to retain the road which was built to take diverted traffic while three railway bridges in the town were upgraded as part of the electrification of the Great Western mainline electrification, as a gated agricultural access.

But a decision was deferred when it came before Wiltshire Council’s Northern Area Planning Committee last month following strong objections from local people about noise, the loss of privacy and dust from aggregates lorries using the road.

They also voiced worries that retaining the road would result in housing development on the site.

Now the developers have redrawn their plans to include the reinstatement of a previous access to the Aggregate Industries site, taking the traffic away from houses.

But it still may not pass muster with locals because it still means keeping the rest of the route for agricultural vehicles.

Residents had put forward an alternative calling for the complete removal of part of the road.

Wiltshire Councillor Chris Hurst stressed he was keeping an open mind ahead of any debate by the committee, but he said: “The plans they have come back with have not really addressed that situation from my point of view.”

Although the access to the aggregates site had been moved, keeping the road intact did nothing to allay concerns that the developer would use it in the future to build housing on the southern side.

“While these proposals differ from those espoused by residents, they demonstrate the same positive elements in terms of residential amenity, whilst maintaining the benefits of the retention of the road for agricultural purposes,” the developers’ agents, Savills, said in a letter to planning officers last week.

“This amendment ensures that the impact of HGVs accessing the AI site will not be any greater in terms of residential amenity as was the case prior to the construction of the diversionary road.

“Indeed the provision of extensive tree planting to the south of the road as part of the proposed mitigation scheme will help screen the visual impact of the traffic from residents on Dunnington Road.”

A decision could be made by the planning committee at its meeting on August 9. It was deferred on June 14 at the suggestion of Brinkworth councillor Toby Sturgis who sympathised with householders disturbed by the aggregate trucks, but advised caution in refusing the application there and then because it could lead to a worse situation if there was an appeal.

The road was opened in 2016 as a temporary link between Marlborough Road and the A3102 to prevent drivers having to make a 30-mile diversion while work on the rail bridges was completed. It closed in April.