A GREEN oasis in the heart of Chippenham, next to the Donkey Fields, could be at risk, says a Chippenham woman, after she discovered that Chippenham Town FC wants to use it for match day car parking.

Helen Baker, of The Derriads,was upset to discover that Chippenham Town Football Club had their Community Asset Transfer (CAT) bid for the small area of land next to the club, which is regularly used by dog walkers, approved by Chippenham Area Board. The club will then pay rent but a figure has not yet been released.

The transfer is subject to a successful planning bid by Chippenham Town to create 40 parking spaces there.

"I feel quite passionately that this little oasis shouldn't be encroached upon for the development of the football club," UWE Bristol's head of procurement said. "It is important to support the football club as they have just gone up a league this year, but I think they need to come up with a long term travel plan. I don't think the council should be able to give away land that was donated to the people of Chippenham for match day parking.

"It does not matter it it is a piece of scrubland or just some fields, they are a natural habitat and we could lose them."

Chippenham Area Board agreed in March to lease the Donkey Fields to the club for car parking use for 17 years, to help with the expected influx of visitors to the Blues' grounds following their historic promotion to the Vanarama National League last season.

The scheme will not go ahead unless the club win planning permission. If it does, the area will then be available for public parking when there are no matches.

"We have put in a CAT and we are looking to extend the current car park to alleviate pressure from Bristol Road during match days," Chippenham FC's secretary Derek Crisp said. "This is of course subject to an open space notice, which is run by Wiltshire Council and once the results of that are made available, we will take it from there."

The club has regularly had issues with fans parking along Bristol Road and with the promotion to the higher tier next season it is expecting larger crowds visiting Hardenhuish Park.

Miss Baker was also disappointed to find the plans were not available to see online. Wiltshire Council have confirmed that the plans will be made available once all they have received all the relevant information.

A Wiltshire Council spokesman said: “We have received an application from Chippenham FC for a change of use of land to allow the extension of the existing car park by 40 additional parking spaces. We are waiting for further detail from them before we can formally register it and make it publicly available.”