WITH less than three months to go before the developer of the six-acre Kingston Mills site in Bradford on Avon submits its planning application many concerns raised by community leaders are yet to be answered.

Developer Taylor Woodrow hopes to submit plans for the site before Christmas but questions still remain over how much of the site will be set aside for commercial or leisure use.

Since a design workshop, chaired by the Princes Foundation in July, set out a series of common aims shared by the town and the developer, key players in the saga have met monthly to ensure they are working towards an agreed goal.

But the struggle to balance making a profit with including non-residential features, such as shops, a theatre, museum, hotel and office space are leading to continued problems.

Private housing is most profitable, but at the July workshop it was agreed the developer should try to extend commercial elements further into the centre of the site to avoid it becoming a housing estate.

Key players in meetings about the proposed development, including developer Taylor Woodrow, architect Edward Nash, representatives of Bradford on Avon Town Council, West Wiltshire District Council and the Bradford on Avon & District Community Development Trust.

At a meeting earlier this month, Gerald Milward-Oliver, chairman of the Bradford on Avon and District Community Development Trust, was concerned by suggestions Kingston House could be used for private housing instead of commercial use.

He said: "It's terribly important to us. One of the core points from the Princes Foundation workshop was the need to ensure that the non-residential space included Kingston House and the area around it."

The final meeting before Taylor Woodrow submits its planning application will take place on November 1.