CHIPPENHAM'S long-awaited playing fields project could be delayed because district planners have recommended the plans be thrown out.

Chippenham Town Council leader Sandie Webb is furious because planning officers at North Wiltshire District Council and the highways authority at Wiltshire County Council have both opposed a planning application for access on to the A4.

She now wants to bring young footballers to a planning meeting to help press the case for the new facility.

"The county council officers have offered us no help with this at all," she said.

The site lies between Stanley Lane and the A4 towards Calne. The town council acquired the land and has submitted a planning application for an access on to the A4 and an easement to Stanley Lane to provide access for pedestrians and cyclists.

Coun Webb said the A4 access is critical if changing rooms are to be sited in a central position, within easy reach of the football pitches.

"If every access is off Stanley Lane it will be almost impossible because we would have to site the changing rooms there too, and it would be too far from the pitches."

The district council provided £490,000 towards the project but its planning officers are also opposing the planning application, which is due to come before the area development control committee on July 31.

A report says the application should be turned down on ecological grounds.

Officers say the alterations needed to create the A4 access would include widening the road, which would mean removing a hedgerow and cutting down trees. But Coun Webb said the removal of a few trees and hedges do not outweigh the importance of providing the town with a playing field.

Coun Webb says the county council has betrayed Chippenham through its lack of support.

"The county council was happy to work with us when we were prepared to remove our objection to the proposals for the Allington School site," she said.

"Now they have the Secretary of State's approval to develop the land it's a different story."

She said the sale of the Allington site, in Chippenham, for housing would raise around £10 million for the county council and proposed some of the proceeds should be used to make the relevant stretch of the A4 more safe.

The town council has taken out a £200,000 public works loan to help fund the playing field project, and is now looking to the Football Foundation for funding. But it needs planning permission for the access before it can submit the application.

"We've wanted this for a long time," said Coun Webb. "We have to get it right."