COUNCILLORS in Bradford on Avon are preparing for a public referendum on the Neighbourhood Plan despite claims it could “open the floodgates” to further development.

Town councillor Dominic Newton outlined plans for a minimum of four polling stations for the referendum, which is now expected to take place in mid to late-September.

He told Wednesday’s full council meeting it was likely the Wiltshire Council-organised referendum would be carried out in a similar way to a local council by-election.

Councillors have already voted in favour of the plan but have yet to discuss whether they can use town council resources to campaign for a ‘yes’ vote and whether the council staff would have to remain neutral.

Some residents expressed concerns that changes to the plan made by the independent examiner could open the floodgates to further housing development.

Martin Newman, who lives in Newtown, said changes and deletions to key paragraphs in the plan appear to “lay the town wide open” to housing development way beyond Wiltshire Council’s Core Strategy numbers.

The Wiltshire Council Housing Land Supply Statement, published in September 2015, set out plans for 595 new homes in Bradford on Avon, of which 531 have already been provided for or have planning consent, he said.

The neighbourhood plan has to provide for 64 more new homes. Of these, most are expected to be built on land to the north of Holt Road, which has already received outline consent. Other housing will be provided for by infill in the town.

Mr Newman said references in the plan to future housing needs had been removed and replaced with the sentence: “The policies of the neighbourhood plan provide for sustainable housing growth over and above the indicative requirement in the Wiltshire Core Strategy Policy 7.”

Another local resident, Christine Steel, said the changes appeared to “open the floodgates” to further development. “We are fully aware of the need for Bradford on Avon to have a neighbourhood plan but it needs to be the right one,” she said.

But Cllr Dominic Newton, disputed that changes to the plan would lead to further unwanted development, saying: “In fact, it is not having the plan in place that will ‘open the floodgates’, as it will remove the protection that the plan contains and allow developers to disregard the views of the community.”