SUTTON Benger residents are celebrating after Wiltshire Council refused planning permission to build 28 homes at Arms Farm.

An application last September, for 60 homes at the western end of the village, prompted 122 objections to Wiltshire Council.

The applicant said Arms Farm would result in a logical rounding off of the village, and villages in the Chippenham Community Area were required by Wiltshire Council's Core Strategy to accommodate new homes.

Following two Redrow schemes for a total of 84 homes on the old chicken factory and Hazelwood Farm, the Arms Farm LLP plans were viewed by many as over-development of the village, which does not have a shop and has had issues with flooding.

In January the application was revised to 28 homes and a reduced site area of 1.38ha instead of 3.01ha.

At yesterday’s Northern Area Planning Committee, Sutton Benger resident Norman Davis said: “Even this reduction has not reduced the level of ill-feeling and animosity in the village.

“Arms Farm is a greenfield site, it is agriculturally productive, and it is being sacrificed at a time when we are all being encouraged to grow our own food.

“This additional eight per cent increase in dwellings will be the last nail in the coffin for Sutton Benger. We’ll be strangers in our own village.”

Wiltshire councillor Howard Greenman also asked for the plan to be refused.

He said: “The village has already grown by 24 per cent and it is arguably at breaking point in terms of infrastructure. I don’t think it can possibly be expected to take anymore.”

The committee voted unanimously to reject the plan.