A controversial development planned for the former Lucent site on the edge of Malmesbury has been thrown out by district planning officers.

The ambitious 155-house scheme was submitted by office leasing firm the Minton Group, which bought the abandoned site on Swindon Road for an undisclosed sum last year.

The application has now been turned down by North Wiltshire District Council officers, acting under delegated powers.

They were concerned about the loss of employment land, fears over flooding and because it went against the draft local plan's policy on brownfield sites.

The Minton Group and its agents Hunter Page Planning said they are lodging an appeal against the decision.

Paul Fong of Hunter Page Planning said: "The council decided to refuse under delegated powers which we are quite astonished about.

"They have refused because of a policy on the local plan which related to brownfield sites but we have been informed that policy has been deleted.

"They have also refused because of employment when we have proved in great detail there will be no loss of employment through the proposals we have put forward."

The council had asked for more information which Hunter Page Planning said it was willing to find.

But the council had refused the application before the information was ready, said Mr Fong who has written to the council's chief executive Bob Marshall complaining about the poor performance of planning officers.

The controversial scheme is made up of one to four bedroom "live-work units" that will all have office space on a separate floor or built adjacent to the house. Affordable housing will also be included as well as a business and meeting centre, crche and restaurant.

The site lies within St Paul's Malmesbury Without Parish and its council decided to support the scheme with reservations.

Parish council chairman Ian Henderson, who is also a district councillor, was surprised the decision had been made by the district council's paid officers and not by elected representatives.

"I am surprised that such development did not go before the district council planning committee," he said.

"The scheme has major merits but there are also issues about any further developments in and around Malmesbury that need to be taken into account."

Councillors will decide on a planning application only if five people object or if a district councillor asks it to be considered by the development control committee, Mr Henderson said.

Malmesbury Town Council objects to the scheme and the Civic Trust has also been vocal in its opposition.

Civic Trust vice chairman Roger Griffin said: "My reaction is relief.

"The proposals that were put forward I think were reasonable for use of that site some time in the future but at the moment we have got many houses being built or sites that have permission for housing developments.

"We have already used up our ten year projected figures for housing in three years without counting the development planned for the primary school site and Filands. I do not think Malmesbury has the infra-structure to cope with it."

Malmesbury Mayor Patrick Goldstone said: "We were worried about residential accommodation of that quantity being built near to the town."

A North Wiltshire District Council spokesman said the development was refused because it would mean the loss of employment land.

He agreed a restriction under the draft local plan, which allows only limited housing development on brownfield sites outside the framework boundary, is expected to be deleted from the plan in October.

He also said the Minton Group had not shown that the development would reduce the risk of flooding.