Campaigners from the Friend’s of Bird’s Marsh got a chance to express their concern to the shadow minister for local government and planning on Monday.

MP Bob Neill along with Wiltshire Council leader Jane Scott and Tory candidate for Chippenham Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones visited the green space, which has been earmarked as potential development land.

Nearby residents are concerned the valuable community meadow and woodland will be covered in unsustainable houses after some initial proposals from planning officers designated it as a ‘preferred’ site for new homes.

But Mr Neill said Wiltshire Council were only following government legislation which forced the council to meet certain targets.

He said: “Wiltshire Council is in a bit of a straightjacket.

“The problem is the Regional Spatial Strategy which gives targets to local authorities and leads to housing developments being imposed on communities that do not want them.

“If the Conservatives win the next election we will scrap the Regional Spatial Strategy and remove the need for these targets.

“That will give Wiltshire Council a free hand to decide what is a suitable site for development.

“The key is to change the legislation, anything else is fiddling around with deckchairs on the Titanic.”

Bird’s Marsh campaigner Ann Hawkins criticised a previous consultation held in Chippenham’s Neeld Hall on a Friday.

She said: “We collected 300 signatures in two days and people were shocked when we told them there had been a consultation.

“They hadn’t heard anything about it and most of them would have been at work anyway.

“A lot of people said we are wasting our time and that the council will do whatever they want.”

Mrs Scott said the proposals were in their early stages and further public consultation would be conducted before any decisions are made.

She said: “Government rules and regulations say this is the way we have to do it.

“The process is in its very early stage.

“We have received hundreds of letters from local people and also from developers and there will be further consultation.

“We know we need to build more houses in time for 2026 but the important thing is to work communities that want them and not impose them on communities that don’t.

“Hopefully the whole thing will be scrapped with a change of government.”