A resident group have hired a barrister to stop an application for a truck stop on the A417 coming into Cirencester.

The campaign group call themselves 'CARG' (Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Residents’ Group).

The proposed site borders Stratton, Baunton and Daglingworth, on land at Ermin Way Farm.

The Cotswold District Council unanimously rejected this application for a 24/7 truck-stop for 97 lorries in December 2020.

However the developer, William Gilder Ltd, has since pledged an appeal against this rejection.

The resident group are raising money to fund specialists to help them win what they refer to as a 'David and Goliath' situation.

A spokesman for CARG said: “The case put forward by William Gilder Ltd to build a truck stop and lorry park on a green field in the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) at the Planning Inquiry last week was shown to be very weak.

"They failed to prove that there was an exceptional need for a truck stop in this precise location and had ignored far better locations a few miles away outside the AONB, where large areas are already covered in concrete or tarmac.”

Hashi Mohamed, Barrister for CARG, said if permission was granted to locate the truck stop within the AONB it could potentially lead to truck stops popping up in environmentally sensitive areas all over the country.

William Gilder Ltd has been contacted for comment.