A LONG-RUNNING planning application to build houses next to Brinkworth village hall is facing opposition from local people who fear a proposal to stop up a layby outside could lead to a serious accident.

The scheme for eight houses, including four affordable homes, in the grounds of the Rectory was lodged by the Diocese of Bristol over two years ago and has been revised several times since. Changes include dropping the number of affordable properties to two, a separate access and moving the site for a new village hall car park to protect great crested newts and their habitat.

But locals say there is already a speeding problem along The Street and are angry at the proposal to stop grass over the layby used by buses, parents dropping their children off at pre-school and people swapping books at the telephone box library.

Peter Seagger suggested it would deprive the village of a safe bus stop and parking place for the mobile library.

“All in all, after being allowed two years of opportunity, the applicant has offered no improvement on the original proposal,” he wrote.

“This application seems to be an accident waiting to happen,” Heather Barber said. “They are wanting buses to stop to pick up and drop off on a road where traffic does go over the speed limit, just before a double bend.”

In a statement Rector Stephen Wilkinson told villagers his role was to stand with parishioners and make sure the diocese had heard their voice. Following his intervention a representative from had met local people and acknowledged the problem over the layby and the needs of the pre-school, which operates from the hall.

He said: “The filling in of the lay-by was a requirement of the highways department, not a diocese request. Discussions with highways officers indicate that they now understand the realities of the situation.”

The need for a secure outdoor play area for Butterflies was also understood and feedback had been given to the church’s planning consultants who had not done a good job talking to village hall users.

“The current plans were submitted as the result of an agreement between LPDC and Wiltshire Council’s technical officers as a plan which was likely to gain planning permission. They were not the result of somebody in Bristol randomly rearranging elements on a map, but the output of a complex dance of the needs of car park, housing, local and national planning constraints. There is no malice or spite intended in any aspect of the plan.”

He added there was now constructive dialogue between the diocese, local residents and him.

The application can be seen online at wiltshire.gov.uk and the deadline for comments is October 13.