THE company behind plans for a £56m science park on Swindon’s outskirts began a three-week inquiry into whether the council's decision to reject them should be overturned.

Wasdell Group wants to build large industrial and research and development facilities on Wanborough farmland to grow and create jobs.

The pharmaceutical company argued the landscape planning policy that prevented their proposal being approved was out of date and not fit for purpose.

Neil Cameron QC said: “One issue of this inquiry is whether a planning policy framework adapted in 2015 - before the pandemic, before Brexit, before new economic strategies were developed - should be allowed to stand in the way of economic activity critical to the UK’s future.

“The concept being promoted is the creation of a like-minded community of cutting-edge companies in a campus environment with specialist infrastructure.

"Over time, the effect of the proposal on the landscape and scenic beauty will be minimal... and the development would integrate successfully with the landscape.

"This proposal is put forward by a commercially successful company in the pharmaceutical sector which wishes to be able to expand its own business and nurture small companies to allow them to manufacture new products."

But the borough countered that building such a large site on The Marsh would cause a lot of harm to the nearby area of outstanding natural beauty and historic assets - including paving a car park over a Roman farmstead - which could not be justified by the evidence of potential economic benefits.

Paul Stinchcombe QC argued that better alternative industrial sites were available which would achieve Wasdell’s aims without risking any of this damage.

He said: "There is no proven need for any of these harms to be occasioned. The same benefits - speculative or real - could be generated elsewhere and in the right place.

"You don't build a monstrous building in the hope you can use it and seek to justify it on the basis of economic benefits when you don't know whether you can use it.

"There are a whole host of reasons that already compel refusal unless a quite exceptional case can be fully evidenced to justify building this particular development on this particular site - that case has not been made.

"No evidence has been made to explain why [Wasdell] needs to relocate to a single site to grow and prosper or why it needs to relocate to this particular site in order to prosper.

"The chairman has contemplated relocating to Basingstoke... which undermines completely the argument that it can only grow if relocated to the appeal site.

"There is no evidence that any prospective tenants have signed up or will sign up. The furthest evidence is a handful of letters from prospective occupiers - most of them say that the letter writer could be interested."

Coun Gary Sumner, representatives from Wanborough and Liddington, and the South Swindon Protection Group - which formed to oppose the plans - and added their voices to the objections.

The appeal inquiry will continue for three weeks.