A SENIOR county highways official has accused residents of Roundway Park of adding to the traffic congestion in Devizes.

Philip Tilley, Wiltshire County Council's transport and development manager, made his remarks at the Kennet Local Plan public inquiry, which yesterday heard from people objecting to greenfield land next to Quakers Walk being allocated for 300 houses and a primary school.

Kennet District Council is proposing that the site is the best available for large scale housing development.

Objectors, however, spoke against the proposed second access road for buses and emergency vehicles, which would link the site with Roundway Park.

Kennet Council argued that future residents of the Quakers Walk estate would walk and cycle because of the close proximity to the town centre.

Seven objectors spoke at the inquiry and 30 members of the public, some from Roundway Park, were present.

Mr Tilley said: "Mr John Hawkins told the inquiry that residents of Roundway Park drive to town, not walk. They should see themselves as part of the traffic congestion in Devizes and should see themselves as contributing to the solution."

Speaking after the inquiry, Roundway Park resident Ivy Oakford, 72, said: "My GP's surgery is on the other side of Devizes and I can't walk there and back. My husband has got asthma so he cannot walk great distances."

Housewife Kathy Hills, another resident of Roundway Park, said: "If it is pouring with rain I am not going to walk into Devizes to do my shopping. I pay £160 road tax to keep my car on the road the same as Mr Tilley does."

Another resident, Jennifer Harrison, said she feared the second access would completely destroy the historic Quakers Walk as a safe place for children to walk, cycle or ride, and for hundreds of people who walk it regularly. "We all feel very strongly about this," she said.