I am looking forward to seeing the Range exhibition in January (Gazette & Herald, December 18), and to being able to test some of the promises made on behalf of the scheme – particularly how it will inject such a large sum of money into the local economy and how this will translate into local business, spend in local shops, and the contribution to the local business rate.

In the meantime, I’d like to know why the consultation process has been so limited – over Christmas and restricted to a relatively small number of houses on The Range’s future doorstep.

I’m sure that Wiltshire Council has met its statutory obligations here, but this is not enough: a scheme of this size, nature and in this location will change Chippenham and the surrounding villages forever. A decision to approve the scheme should be a matter for debate for all of us.

We all want to live in attractive, connected communities. We value highly skilled, well-paid jobs; we claim that we want to protect the countryside and to encourage long-term growth, not short-term gain.

The Range offers none of these things. It will destroy the small and medium-sized businesses that are Chippenham’s only chance of a vibrant future. It will privilege short-term, part-time working over long-term, secure employment. It will obliterate part of the countryside in which the town is set – which makes it special – and pave the way for the obliteration of the rest.

It is beyond belief that Wiltshire Council should be considering approving the current planning application. To do so is to betray the past, the present and the future and to sell us all short. And for what? More environmental pollution, a greater risk of flooding, loss of habitats, more traffic congestion, a town centre of boarded-up shops and closing businesses?

We know that this model of out-of-town development doesn’t work. We know that it was discredited years ago.

We know that the jobs this scheme will create are not the basis for long-term prosperity.

We know that it will not encourage the shops and businesses that the town centre so clearly needs.

We should consider how we could exploit Chippenham’s real potential for sustainable growth, instead of throwing all that away for doubtful short-term gain, and long-term and possibly irreversible damage.

Dr Alison Hems, Kington St Michael.