Access to the housing estates at the former Roundway Hospital site in Devizes will be closed from July 1, it has been announced.

Residents at Drews Park Village and the new Heritage Park at the northern end of the site will only be able to access the town centre along Marshall Road and Nursteed Road.

Closing the Pans Lane access was a condition of planning permission but it caused consternation to residents who bought properties in Drews Park as they had not been informed.

They have since agreed that it is a safer option than allowing traffic to use their estate as a "rat run" between Potterne Road and Nursteed Road.

Ray Parsons, district councillor for Devizes South, said: "Residents living in the Pans Lane and Wick Lane area will welcome the impending closure of the access to the growing residential estates at the former Roundway Hospital site.

"Since the development was first planned, it has been recognised that the original 19th-century entrance to the hospital via Pans Lane would be unable to safely handle the much larger volume of traffic generated by the redevelopment of the site for housing."

He said the approach had been supported by both the county council and the Government planning inspectors.

A new entrance on to Nursteed Road had been made with the completion of Marshall Road.

From July 1, only buses, emergency vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists will be able to use the original entrance to reach Pans Lane and Wick Lane.