GAZETTE & HERALD: Detailed plans for Wiltshire's new £11.6 million Record Office and Heritage Centre on the controversial cattle market site in Chippenham have been submitted to North Wiltshire District Council.

Wiltshire County Council has pressed ahead with plans despite a vociferous and determined campaign to keep the county's record office in Trowbridge, and in the face of a disappointing rejection by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Now the county council is working with Swindon Borough Council to build a new facility on the cattle market site, along with five key heritage services under one roof.

County heritage officer Tom Craig said he was pleased with the plans.

"A key aim of the project was to enable people to access all the types of heritage whether archives, archaeology or local studies and this design brings that one step closer," he said.

The local studies library, the archaeology service, Wiltshire buildings record, museum service and conservation department will all come together in one state-of-the-art building, designed to replace the out-dated and unsuitable premises currently used in Trowbridge.

Chippenham Town Council's planning and environment committee considered the plans last week and members raised no objections except to query the name of the new building, billed as a Heritage Centre in the plans.

The committee was concerned this might lead to confusion as the town already has a heritage centre, in the Market Place.

Campaigners for a new Trowbridge site have pledged to keep up the fight in the face of the planning application.

Protester David Colcomb, from Devizes, said: "The campaign will go on, and we are still hopeful the site could be changed yet.

"This is the wrong site and in the wrong town, and we will fight it every step of the way. It is completely wrong of the county council to press ahead with this and expect we shall be making representations about the plans."

The new record office will preserve Wiltshire's precious archival heritage and the centre will offer a better service for the public, schools, colleges, and people researching their family history by giving them access to the full range of heritage services on a single site.

Wiltshire will contribute £8.85 million to the scheme and Swindon will provide the remaining £2.75 million.

Campaigners for a Trowbridge Record Office have consistently criticised the plans, complaining Chippenham is hard to access from the south of the county and claiming the cattle market site is unsuitable, being close to an electrical sub-station and on a former corporation rubbish dump.

Now that lottery fund approval is not required, a quicker timetable is feasible and inflation costs will be lower.

Since the HLF refusal of funding, a new scheme has been drawn up, including the use of more cost effective materials.

The county council had already allocated over £6.7m towards the costs and further £2.1m will be reinvested in the Chippenham site from the sale of the Allington school site in the town.

Mr Craig said the plans were submitted in mid September but he had not yet received a date for the scheme to go before the development control committee.

The county council will acquire the land under a 125-year lease from North Wiltshire District Council at a cost of £444,000.

The future use of the current records site has yet to be finalised but the county council is committed to working towards the Vision for Trowbridge, and developing the current site is a critical part of it.

The county council wants to start work on the new record office in 2005 with the opening in the financial year 2007/08.