ANOTHER bid to build homes on a site at Pavenhill in Purton will cause a huge amount of distress and anger, claims a councillor for the area.

Jaqui Lay said it felt like the village was being targeted for housing schemes and developers are not listening to residents.

She made the comments following the latest application for 25 homes. Previous attempts have been refused at local authority and Planning Inspectorate level.

The site is to the rear of existing houses on the northern side of Pavenhill,to the north of Gleed Close and to the east of Upper Pavenhill.

“In my opinion, it is against democracy to keep challenging a decision, made by the elected councillors who sit on the spatial planning committee.

“It has already been a long journey for this site and there are a number of people in the community who have been leading on raising concerns and representations.”

There are two other outstanding developments being proposed in the area.

At Purton Road, 79 new homes are due to be decided at appeal - having also been refused twice by Wiltshire Council and once by the Inspectorate - and 61 at Widham Farm, again refused several times by councillors and several times at appeal.

It feels that we are being targeted in Purton by proposals for housing," she said.

"Although there may well be a need for housing across the county I do feel that we have sufficient houses available in the Purton Parish with the 950 houses at Ridgeway Farm and Moulden View, plus we have just had another 38 built off Restrop Road and a further 47 granted adjoining that site.

“If the local voice is not to be heard and listened to then why are we constantly being asked to be part of this important process of shaping our communities.”

She explained: "In Purton we have a neighbourhood plan which has been tested before at appeal and has stood up to the test of being sound. It is currently being refreshed by volunteers in the community.

"Hours of volunteer work go into creating these plans which then have to go through a process so that they can defend the local opinions of what we need in our community.

"If these are to be ignored then our local people will see that we are wasting their precious time."

Coun Lay added that if Purton was to have more housing, then solutions will be needed to the traffic problems, as well as “a new parade of shops, better bus services, a bigger surgery with enough parking and more parking around the village so that the existing services can be accessed by the wider population of the parish.”

The design and access statement for the latest Pavenhill applications said it would provide “a mix of dwellings to meet the housing needs of the area, and has good access to a range of facilities and services.”

It added: “The scheme seeks to provide a sustainable development in the village of Purton.”