Developer Hills Homes Limited has launched an appeal against the refusal of planning permission for an estate of 25 houses the company wants to build in Purton.

The company put in a proposal for 25 houses to be built behind the houses lining Pavenhill in the south east of the village just to the west of Swindon.

The houses would be built in rows lining a single road on open green space between the back gardens of the houses lining Ravenhill and allotments.

Access would be allowed from the main road by demolishing 59 B Pavenhill, putting the road to the new estate between the existing houses.

But Wiltshire councillors on the authority’s planning committee voted unanimously in November last year to refuse permission despite a report from a planning officer which recommended approval.

The plans received dozens of letters in opposition and residents and councillors for Purton spoke against the plans

Councillor Jacqui Lay said the area should not take large developments because the village’s infrastructure could not cope

Coun Lay said that children walking up the narrow High Street were regularly hit by car mirrors and more housing would just add to the pressures in the village.

Reasons for refusing permission included the fact that the proposal is outside of the settlement boundary for Purton, in open countryside which has not been allocated for residential development in the council’s planning strategy.

The council said the developers had also not made provisions for affordable housing on the site, or financial contributions towards early years education facility provision, public open space and play equipment and the ongoing maintenance and waste and recycling facilities.

Hills Homes has now launched an appeal against the decision. The matter will be decided by a secretary of state-appointed planning inspector who will receive written arguments.

Hills says: “Wiltshire Council acknowledges that it is not able to demonstrate a supply of specific deliverable sites sufficient to provide a minimum of five years’ supply worth of housing against local housing need.”

The company cites the latest figures showing the council’s allocation of land will lead to a shortfall of nearly 1,000 homes against need over the next five years.

This is often a crucial point in determining whether applications are successful or not, especially at appeal.

Wiltshire Council will make its representation, but members of the public can also make theirs.

Comments  can be made online at  https://acp.planninginspectorate.gov.uk or by email west1@planninginspectorate.gov.uk or Planning Inspectorate, Room 3c, Temple Quay House, 2 The Square, Bristol BS1 6PN, quoting APP/Y3940/W/22/3293096. Comments should be received by 25 October 2022