FRUSTRATIONS over planning rules erupted at Tuesday’s parish council meeting.

Councillors hit out at developers, claiming that delays over the New Eastern Villages (NEV) development meant that land not allocated for housing in Swindon’s local plan was being built on.

Borough planning officers have failed to meet government targets for housing numbers – rendering the local plan “out of date”, in the words of Taylor Wimpey’s Steven Neal.

He said: “The local plan is by definition of the national planning policy framework out of date. That is, it cannot demonstrate a housing land supply of five years.”

A furious Chris Watts, chairman of the parish council, said: “The reason we can’t meet our targets is because yourselves and Swindon Borough Council can’t get your act together to put houses on the bit of land we’ve allocated [NEV] and democratically agreed.”

However, Steven Neal hit back: “We are desperately trying to get planning permission because we want to build those houses. It serves us no benefit.”