A developer wanting to build nearly 300 houses as part of the New Eastern Villages expansion will have to provide a report looking at its impact on fields possibly untouched since the Middle Ages.

Land promoter Terra Strategic and Hayfield Homes have put in two linked scoping requests to Swindon Borough Council’s planning department asking whether it was necessary to produce an environmental impact assessment.

Such requests often precede a formal planning application for a major development and are normally a reliable indicator such an application is in the pipeline.

Hayfield Homes wants to build 280 houses on rough grassland towards the south of the expansion area between Redlands village, where 370 houses are approved, and the larger Lotmead villages which will see 2,500 homes and employment land and which already have outline permission.

The application by the developers says the site will  have 280 houses, roads and cycle tracks connecting to the rest of Redlands village to the south, public open space and a children’s play park, what it calls a “landscape buffer” to prevent the village merging with others and a “green corridor” 50 metres wide for a canal to be built.

The companies say: “This development site is an integral part of the New Eastern Villages. 

"When completed and occupied, it could be expected to accommodate some 670 to 750 residents.”

They add that the land they want to use is not sensitive ecologically, and the best part of the site will be kept green.

“The fields are considered to be of low ecological value, with the field boundaries, and along the watercourse of more interest," they said.

"The majority of the boundary features would be retained and incorporated into the development design. 

"An area within the south west section of the site has potential for significant biodiversity enhancement and is therefore retained in the proposed development layout.”

The companies will have to produce an environmental impact report. The council’s ecology officer said: “Building will be on an area of lowland meadow part of which appears to be old ridge and furrow grassland which is arguably an 'irreplaceable habitat'.

"Survival of ridge and furrow indicates that ploughing has been minimal since the system was abandoned in medieval times, so the pasture in that part of the site may be hundreds of years old.”