A development director working to bring The Range to Chippenham has warned there will be no second chance for the town should planning permission for the homeware chain be refused.

Oliver Bertram, of First Industrial, a firm of consultants advising The Range, was speaking at a public exhibition of the plans at the Neeld Hall on Friday and Saturday.

“There are other sites in mind if this fails at planning. Chippenham works for them [The Range], but they won’t be knocking on the door trying to rectify a decision notice which does not work in their favour.

“All the people who want The Range realise they need to do something about it.”

More than 400 people turned out over the two days for the exhibition, which attracted residents both for and against the proposals.

Chris Baker, of Allington Action Group, which opposes the plans, said: “It’s a tick box exercise. There was nobody from The Range when I was there; it was staffed by people from Turley planning consultants. There’s a due process to follow they were not really interested in anyone’s thoughts.”

Traffic consultant Tom Mais said the exit from the development would be left-turn only, but the entrance would depend whether the A350 was a dual carriageway.

If the stretch outside The Range remained single carriageway, there would be a right-turn lane in the middle for vehicles travelling from Morrisons. If if was dual carriageway, vehicles would go all the way around the Brook roundabout, which would be extended, back to the site.

Information stands around the hall argued the site could not be adjacent to the M4, because that site would not be delivered by mid-2016 and it had not been identified for employment in the emerging Wiltshire Core Strategy.

The ‘Say No to The Range’ petition has now surpassed 1,000 names, while ‘Bring The Range to Chippenham’ has more than 500.

Graham Kent, a forklift driver, of Royal Close, Chippenham, who support The Range application, said: “I work for agencies at the moment, travelling 120 to 130 miles a day for work. I want something that’s on the doorstep.”

Alex Simpkin, head of supply chain at The Range, said none of the proposed jobs would be zero-hour contracts and core numbers in the distribution centre would start at about 750.