The sons of late multi-millionaire Robert Sangster want to create a public country park in his memory in Marlborough – in exchange for land to build 50 homes.

They are proposing to develop homes on 1.7 hectares of open space north of Rabley Wood View, which is owned by Wiltshire Council, in place of 14 hectares nearby owned by the Manton Estate.

The Manton Estate was built up by racehorse owner and breeder Robert Sangster, who died of cancer in 2004.

The land near Rabley Wood View has goal posts and a playground on it but if the plans of his sons Ben and Guy get the go-ahead, around 50 homes would be built on it, with 40 per cent being affordable housing in line with Wiltshire Council’s planning policy.

Richard Cosker, of RCC Town Planning, who is acting as agent for the Manton Estate, said: “It was Robert’s idea originally.

“Robert always wanted to give over some land to Marlborough. He was here for many, many years with the establishment of Manton House so that was the drive behind it and it seems an opportunity because the council are after housing.”

Jeremy Browne, a friend of the Sangster family, added: “Ben and I are old friends and I’ve been in property for 40 years.

“Back in 2006 they realised that they had this plot of land but it’s a site of conservation and I said to Ben that he would never be able to build on it so why don’t we give that land to Marlborough in Robert’s memory?

“The area where the play area is, is probably the only part of Marlborough that can be expanded, other than over by Tesco, and I came up with the idea of actually swapping this land with the 14 hectares and we went to the council and suggested a partnership deal and it was received very well.”

Residents will be able to view plans, ask questions and comment on the housing development and what facilities they would like to see in the county park at an event at Marlborough Town hall from 3pm to 8pm on Tuesday.

Mr Cosker said: “Everyone is always suspicious and you also get a lot of rumours about development and what’s going on and we need people to see what is being proposed rather than speculate on what may be happening.

“The affordable housing will go to a registered social landlord and a lot of those are for rent nowadays.

“As well as the affordable houses, what we’re trying to achieve is not big, executive houses as has happened on other sites in Marlborough but actually some smaller for sale properties as well.

“Sometimes on sites you’ll get the required 40 per cent affordable and then the houses you can buy are all four beds, which not all people can afford, so there are often people in between.

“They are not able to get affordable housing from a social landlord but neither are they able to afford the big houses being built.”

An application will be submitted before end of the year and building could start next spring.