HUNDREDS of angry Melksham residents have signed a petition protesting against the idea that 160 homes could cover a field they say they were told would never be built on.

The petition was sparked after Waddeton Park Ltd spoke to Melksham Without Parish Council and Wiltshire Council about building on a field north of Woodrow Road, which locals say is prone to flooding.

No planning application has been made, but Sue Carter, who has lived on the road for more than 40 years, staged a protest at the field and launched a petition to deter the developers from going forward with any plans.

Ms Carter said: “There are loads of people around here that go out there to walk their dogs. It is a very popular place for people to socialise and we are really devastated by what is planned to happen.

“There is a lot of wildlife that will be lost if these houses go up but that is not the half of it.

“The real problem is with traffic. We could simply not cope with any more traffic. We have had sleeping policemen installed and there is just absolutely loads of traffic.

“ It backs up from one end of the road to the other so if they build more houses it is just going to be chaos, complete chaos.”

In just a week the petition has received 214 signatures.

Widow Mary Rossiter, 70, who also lives in Woodrow Road, said: “My property is at the entrance of the road where the estate will be. So basically I am going to have around 700 cars going past my front door every day. There is no infrastructure to cope with that amount of increase in traffic.

“The road is only a very small link road and there is a lot of stables down the lane where horses go up and down. It is going to be unbearable.

“It is a very quiet road and there are a lot of retired people here and we just cannot take that amount of traffic.

“We were told that there was no way they would build on that patch of land.”

To see the petition go to: http://chn.ge/1Od1ON1.

Waddeton Park Ltd declined to comment on their plans when contacted by the Wiltshire Times this week.