News that the government- appointed planning inspector who reviewed Wiltshire Council’s Core Strategy plans has rejected the proposals for the development of Chippenham will come as no surprise to anyone outside the council’s planning team.

What a farce! Hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money and years of planning consultation is wasted because the planners were determined to push ahead with their own agenda.

But it gets worse. Despite the Showell Protection Group, among many others, cautioning the Wiltshire strategic planning committee that they should postpone a decision on a planning application for the development of Showell Farm, the council was determined to steamroller through its plans several months ago.

Luckily our MP, Duncan Hames, has sensibly asked the Minister of State to call in the Showell application, which the Minister of State must surely do now his own inspector has said the plans for Chippenham are unsound.

With a major new northern link road around Chippenham and development to the east of the town firmly back on the planning agenda, the plans for an ‘urban extension’ of Chippenham to the south west look even more unsustainable than before. Once again the people of Chippenham face uncertainty over the future of the town.

It will be interesting to see how the planners attempt to wriggle out of this one.

Tony Peacock, Showell, Lacock.