STINGING criticism was directed at Wiltshire Council for the way it looks for potential housing sites across the county.

The authority’s Housing Site Allocation Plan came under heavy fire at Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, in Trowbridge, for not taking on board the hundreds of responses residents have sent in.

Although Wiltshire Council is still looking for sites in Warminster and Trowbridge, among others, speakers repeatedly said that the authority was building on green spaces and not enough on brownfield sites.

George Bunting, of the Hilperton Gap Action Group, said at the meeting that Wiltshire Council was not listening to people’s concerns and that it was sticking to what it wanted.

“I do not know if you are also moonlighting at Private Eye to have three bullet points summing up 8,000 pages,” he said.

“It seems the hundreds of submissions from people have been deemed as worthless. What utter contempt you must have. You should all be ashamed. This is a charade.”

Trowbridge Town Clerk, Lance Allan, slammed the authority for its ‘blinkered’ and ‘misguided’ way of identifying houses across Wiltshire.

“In your own core strategy it recognises that the villages surrounding Trowbridge have separate and distinct identities and that open countryside should be maintained,” he said.

“But with Southwick Court (Trowbridge) and others, you directly contradict that.

“Wiltshire Council has failed to propose a policy that correctly identifies brownfield sites.

“Toby Sturgis is wrong to say that Wiltshire Council does not have the tools to address this because they do and many other councils across the country have done what we want.”