ANOTHER piece of green land on the southern edge of Highworth could soon see houses built.

Birmingham company Custom Land Ltd has put in a planning application for outline permission to build 80 houses on a field off Shrivenham Road.

And neighbours are worried about whether the small town can accommodate such an expansion.

It is immediately south of the newly-built development at Wrag View and is the fourth housing proposal in the area – the rectangular field is the third piece in a jigsaw of proposed developed to the west of Shrivenham Road.

Backhouse Homes have permission for 68 homes on a site south of Redlands Close and the triangular field immediately to the east of that site – sandwiched by Wrag View – has an application for 45 homes recently lodged.

There is also a proposal for 250 homes on the other side of Shrivenham Road.

Custom Land’s application is for outline permission only, so details of design and layout are not included and will have to be approved as a separate application – but it shows access would be in the middle of the site off the main road, and houses would be built in four blocks in the corners of the rectangular site.

The company’s application says: “Infrastructure would account for 40 per cent of the site and include open space, a play area, landscaping, surface water attenuation and ecological improvements.”

Drawings show a green open space fringed by trees would be in the centre of the site and a flood pond to the southern edge. A small copse at the bottom of the site and trees running around the edge would be retained.

But not everyone is convinced.

Ruth Martin, 51, is concerned by the lack of a pavement along the main road – although the plans show pedestrians and cyclist will have access to the right of way running through the fields towards Highworth: “This looks like another development which people will be driving to and from, and it’s a busy road already, and these houses and the other developments will make it so much worse.

“All these builders are just snapping up all the land around Highworth and it’s just expanding the town and it can’t really take it.”

Highworth Town Council does not have the land allocated as suitable for housing in its Neighbourhood Plan and is keen to prevent the spread of the town towards Swindon.

The plans can be viewed on Swindon.gov.uk using reference number S/OUT/20/1046 and the deadline for comments by neighbours is Tuesday, October 6.