THE latest plans for the controversial Chesterton housing development, which could see 2,350 homes built in the area, went on public display this week.

Bathurst Development Limited hosted a community exhibition on Monday and Tuesday, in order to give local residents the opportunity to view the plans and talk to people working on them.

The proposals on show, described as 'a unique opportunity for a sustainable new community’ by the developers, included some changes to those that people would have seen previously.

These include plans to relocate the proposed primary school on the site.

Another notable part of the new plans is a buffer of green space between the perimeter of the site and where houses are to be built, increasing the amount of publicly accessible open space on the site to 86 acres.

A spokesman for Bathurst Development Limited explained that they were happy with the exhibition and feedback and that two further exhibitions were being planned for later in the year.

The spokesman said: “We’re very grateful to all the people who kindly attended our latest two-day community exhibition.
“We welcome their valuable feedback, which we will be taking on board over the coming weeks.

“It was also a useful opportunity for the project team to update the community on the extensive technical work and highways solutions we have progressed over the last six to nine months.

“We will be hosting further consultation events in September and November and we will announce those dates shortly.”

Some residents were happy to see changes made to previous plans, including Derek Campion, who said: “The plans have changed quite a bit since last time; it looks fairly good now.

“They’ve got to learn from their mistakes and consult with the fringe areas of the town that will be affected.

“I still think there will be a problem with the roads, though; it’s a nightmare already,before any work has even started.”

Other people were not so convinced however, such as Patrick Moylan, committee member for the Save Our Cirencester group.

He said: “2,000 houses is just far too many.

"They should be built where they are needed, instead of on a single piece of conveniently placed land," he added.

“Most people don’t want this, it could ruin our town.”

Mark Pratley, chairman of Save Our Cirencester, was also dubious about the plans.

“The local infrastructure can’t take it,” he said.

“It’s too many houses to just bolt on to the side of the town.”

Resident Jane Irving felt that while the plans went some way to alleviating concerns for the development, she insisted that: “It’ll probably happen regardless of what people think.”