COUNCILLORS in Marlborough are recommending revised plans for up to 175 new homes and a hotel in the town are refused.

They had previously expressed no objection when The Crown Estate first submitted proposals last year to build 220 houses on the land in Salisbury Road opposite Tesco.

However at the planning committee meeting last week, having seen the plans had not been amended to reduce the extra traffic problems it could cause, the majority of councillors chose not the support the application.

“The traffic situation is not good,” said councillor Mervyn Hall. “It is the road that is the main problem and essentially it would become one giant cul-de-sac.”

In the new plans the houses have been scaled back from 220 to 175 to focus on the visual impact and ecology of the site.

It also includes a larger 'ecological mitigation area’ to provide a buffer, between the edge of the development and the Marlborough tunnel, which will also be used as homes for bats, reptiles and dormice.

Coun Hall added: “We are not against the houses but what is already a bad traffic situation will become really bad. Our objection is protesting that no one is listening to us about this.

“What we would like to see, but we know the traffic highways will not agree to, is a relief road over on the Pewsey Road so there would be two roads coming into Marlborough. But I think the housing will be going through, no one is listening to us.”

There has been more than 80 letters of representations from residents expressing concerns about the plans which include a 60-bed hotel, new school drop off for St John’s Academy and new walking and cycle routes.

Several residents also attended the meeting and urged councillors to vote to recommend Wiltshire Council reject it.

A motion to approve the application was supported by councillors Peggy Dow, Noel Barrett-Morton, Nick Fogg and Alexander Kirk Wilson but outvoted by the rest of the councillors.

Councillors Guy Loosmore, Lisa Farrell, Richard Allen, Billy Lam, Alec Light and Marian Hannaford-Dobson voted against.

Wiltshire Council has set the target date for a decision on the revised plans for February.