A REFERENDUM is to be held in September to decide the fate of the Devizes Area Neighbourhood Plan.

It will be the culmination of two years work by the town council and Roundway and Bishops Cannings parish councils.

The plan identifies 11 sites that will deliver 241 homes over five years and a further nine sites that will deliver 233 houses over 12 years making a total of 474 homes.

Both the town and parish councils hope that if the plan gets a yes vote at the referendum it will make it much harder for developers to build on land that is not part of the plan.

It's importance was highlighted when the then Communities Secretary of State Eric Pickles over-ruled a planning inspector over the Coate Bridge development for 350 homes.

At the time the appeal report revealed that planning inspector John Felgate, who chaired the four-day hearing in April, had recommended the appeal should have been allowed and planning permission granted.

The report said: "In reaching this view the Secretary of State has had regard to the stage of preparation of the DANP, the content of the consultation statement, the quality and effectiveness of the three consultations carried out prior to submission of the DANP to the local authority, the evidence of local support for the DANP and the fact that the appeal site came second to bottom in the site preference exercise."

Developers Mactaggart and Mickel Homes has now been granted a second appeal into the planning decision and the town and parish councils hope the fact that the neighbourhood plan has progressed even further will help the decision go in their favour.

Roundway Parish Council chairman Chris Callow said: "We still do not know when the appeal will be held but having got to the stage of the referendum has to help our cause."

During the two year consultation process on the plan people were overwhelmingly in favour of building homes on brownfield sites rather than greenfield sites such as the Coate Bridge proposal.

The neighbourhood plan’s principle is for sites to be within a 1,600 metre radius, equivalent to a 20 minute walk, of the town centre.

A report from Wiltshire Council said: "The council is satisfied that the neighbourhood plan, as modified complies with the legal requirements and can proceed to referendum."

Devizes Town Council's deputy clerk Simon Fisher said the referendum was likely to be held in September.