A developer’s outline application to build 65 “high quality” executive homes on agricultural land off Hillworth Road in Devizes looks set for a tough time when it goes before Devizes Town Council’s planning committee tonight – as every political party is opposing it.

The ruling party on the council, the Devizes Guardians, say “we are against it, full stop” and such is the extent of the opposition that Conservative and Labour councillors have formed an alliance to stop the development.

London-based developer Square Bay, argues the site was allocated as a location where new homes could be built in the Devizes Area Neighbourhood Plan, which forms part of Wiltshire Council’s Development Plan.

But plan or no plan, Conservative councillor Maria Hoult and Labour member Catherine Brown have twinned-up in their determination to block the housing plan.

Cllr Hoult said there was "so much wrong with this plan it’s difficult to know where to start".

"All of the focus is on how they can shoe-horn a profitable development into a completely unsuitable site with very little thought for the impact this will have both on the community and the environment.

“We have received countless complaints from residents about the negative impact this development would have on both the roads and the environment.

"Even the developer’s own consultation showed the public was well and truly against their plan, with 72 per cent strongly against it and only 17 per cent in support."

Cllr Brown added: “Building these houses here will add more than 100 cars to already congested residential roads which suffer from poor parking and restricted access at the main junction with Longstreet.”

In its outline application, Square Bay claims: “Based on trip generation data from similar developments, it is expected that the development will generate only one additional vehicle movement every two minutes on average during the busier peak periods.”

But Cllr Brown said they were unconvinced by the survey and mentioned emergency services had had trouble passing parked cars in the area.

But Tom Vaughan-Jones, a director at Square Bay, said: “Our plans have been brought forward informed by this allocation in the Neighbourhood Plan, and following more than two years of positive engagement with the Town Council.

“This included numerous meetings, as well as a letter sent to us by the Town Council last year asking us to confirm that we would be bringing forward a planning application at this site, stating it was their preference to see sites that had been allocated in the Neighbourhood Plan through due process be developed.

"Indeed, we only committed to invest in bringing this allocated site forward for development once we were confident there was Town Council support.”

The town council’s planning committee will discuss the application at 7pm on Tuesday, March 1 at the Corn Exchange.