Villagers from Axford who are trying to prevent Sarsen Housing building five homes on land in the centre of the village claim Wiltshire planners will be going back on their own highway safety regulations if they give the scheme the go-ahead tonight.

A contingent of angry residents is expected to lobby councillors when they arrive for the Eastern area planning committee meeting being held at Browfort, Devizes, this evening.

They believe the planners will be ignoring their own safety regulations for sight-lines for traffic emerging from the site if they accept an officer’s recommendation to remove a condition requiring a visibility splay.

Hamish Watson, who lives next door to the site opposite Kennet Rise, will be asking councillors to defer the plans to enable Wiltshire Council’s lawyers to consider the argument that the sight lines for vehicles emerging from the site, where the development has been held up for more than four months, breach the council’s own minimum requirements.”