Huge plans for a £30 million link road key to the major the expansion of Swindon have been thrown into doubt.

The Secretary of State for housing communities and local government has agreed to the call by farmers for a public inquiry into the route of the road to join the New Eastern Villages scheme to the rest of Swindon.

The ‘southern connector’ road is critical to the success of the programme – one of Swindon Borough Council’s flagship policies.

But the inquiry could cause delay to the its construction or force the council back to the drawing board entirely, with inevitable consequences for the 8,000 homes due to be built in six ‘villages’ of land to the east of the A419.

The landowners and farmers say the route will leave a huge swathe of agricultural land, particularly at the southern reaches near Commonhead roundabout as ‘virtually unfarmable’.

George Paton of chartered surveyors WebbPaton, based in Royal Wootton Bassett, represents the group of 19 landowners.

He says they are worried the land between the road, which is designed to run from Commonhead roundabout, through the villages up to the centre of the Lotmead development, and the A419 will become useless.

And while they are being compensated for the land the council wants to compulsorily purchase, they won’t receive anything for the land they say will be unusable.

Mr Paton said: “This land here will never be used for development, it’s part of a floodplain and gets very wet. It’s off a road called the Marsh – there’s a clue in the name.

“We have been trying to talk to the council for two years now about how to make it work, and we feel we’ve got nowhere.

“We are not against the development, we are not against the road, but we want it to be designed and constructed properly and we feel we’ve had to go down the route of the public inquiry because we have no other choice.”

With the land currently being used for grazing cattle in summer, Mr Paton says the farmers want to be able to carry on with that. “At the moment, you can move the cattle from one field across the small road to other fields,” he said.

“We have been asking for gates to be placed opposite each other and for holding pens to be put near them on either side, that will allow two people to get livestock across the road and into lorries – but we’ve got nowhere with this.”

Mr Paton added the landowners feel the developers of the villages should be buying the land used for the road, rather than the council buying it through compulsory purchase order.

He said: “This is a waste of taxpayers’ money. This is not what the CPO powers are for.

“The developers should be acquiring this road and paying proper money for the land.

“I would recommend the council thinks twice before rushing this planning application and creating an expensive High Court challenge by the landowners, and a cost to the taxpayers of Swindon.”

He added: “We’d be happier if the council bought the land between the road and the A419 and then planted trees, but that idea has got nowhere and we can just see it being useless and becoming scrub.”

The Conservative administration at Euclid Street was contacted for comment.

A council spokesman said the authority was not able to say much but acknowledged the objection, saying: “The southern connector road will provide a strategic link between the 8,000-home New Eastern Villages and Commonhead roundabout and a compulsory purchase order was made by the council to secure the land.

“Landowners affected by the proposals have passed their objections on to the secretary of state, as is their legal right, and, as a result, he has called a public inquiry which will get under way in January.

“It would not be appropriate for us to comment on the specific points raised by Mr Paton at this time.”

The council’s cabinet member for strategic planning Gary Sumner had come under fire politically from Labour councillors for borrowing millions of pounds to pay for the road infrastructure to be built before the houses are constructed.

The Labour group’s spokesman for strategic planning, Jim Robbins, said: “It is sad but not surprising to see that the Conservative administration’s woeful record of poor engagement with stakeholders is continuing.

"The Tory administration had already described the funding for this project as a ‘significant risk’ and this public inquiry will only add to that risk.

“Based on its shocking track record of big infrastructure projects in the town, it is impossible to come to any other conclusion than the Tory administration simply doesn’t have the capacity to deliver on projects like the NEV.”

The public inquiry is scheduled to start at 10am on Monday, January 20 at the civic offices in Euclid Street.

Members of the public should indicate to the Planning Inspectorate if they want to be able to speak to the inquiry.

The borough council’s plan for the road will come before its own planning committee next Monday in a meeting at 5.30pm at the civic offices.