AS Wanborough residents prepare a campaign of letter-writing in opposition to plans by Wasdell group to built a new plant near the village, they have been going through the 180-page application.

And they have taken issue with some of the details, including transport modelling that suggests the new development would generate no more traffic at all through Wanborough.

A company spokesman said: “The traffic modelling is not Wasdell’s, but was undertaken independently by Swindon Borough Council’s transport consultants, using the council’s own traffic model. Before the modelling started, Wasdell’s transport consultants agreed a distribution of traffic with the highway authority which identified the key origins in and around Swindon that new staff would likely be attracted from, for both the initial phase and for the wider science park element of the site.

“The first phase identified both where staff working at the current Blagrove site live and where future staff were likely to be attracted from, and identified no attraction from Wanborough or further to east to the proposed site.

“With regards to the science park element, the transport assessment takes into account existing work travel patterns within east Swindon and likely origins of new workers, given the type of jobs that will be on offer within a new science park.

"This information was fed into the council’s traffic model which calculated the key routes to the site, taking into account new infrastructure that will be delivered over the coming years, including improvements to J15 on the M4, the A419 improvements and the new Southern Connector Road.

“As for construction traffic and suppliers to Wasdell, measures will be put in place to ensure that such traffic does not travel through Wanborough, but always enters and exits via the A419.”

But opponents of the scheme say this modelling is simply too good to be true.

A spokesman for the South Swindon Protection Group said: “The Commonhead roundabout is already frequently congested and the new Southern Connector Road is only conceived to cater for the extra demand for the New Eastern Villages - not any other development demands.

“We already experience serious rat-running, without the effect of the proposed site on Inlands Farm.

“When there are problems on the A419 or M4 - which is regularly - traffic uses the Wanborough Road from Covingham/Nythe, the High Street, the Marsh and Church Road/Pack Hill.

"This, at times heavy and often speeding, traffic poses a safety threat to walkers, cycles and horse riders and causes frequent problems with heavy vehicles trying to manoeuvre narrow bends and roads where it is difficult to pass.

“The use of Pack Hill which not suitable for HGVs, and the proposed entrance at the apex of the bend, poses a risk to life and is therefore not viable.”

Comments on the application should be made via the councils’ website by January 31.