The list of demands laid out by MP Michelle Donelan over the controversial Future Chippenaham scheme will only be met if the local plan review leads to home-building, says council leader.

The leader of Wiltshire Council, Philip Whitehead said he was grateful to receive the letter last week from Michelle Donelan – in which she threatened to withdraw support for the Future Chippenham scheme.

It will be up to the Future Chippenham team to respond to Michelle Donelan’s letter “on the same basis as its response to Chippenham Town Council”, Cllr Whitehead told the Gazette.

The leader went on to say that the letter gives the local authority a chance to clarify the purpose of both the Wiltshire Local Plan and the Future Chippenham consultations.

He said there will be a further master planning consultation, which will take place after the summer and the announcement of the preferred road route option.

From there planning applications for the distributor road and the master plan will follow toward the end of the year.

“The list of requests made by Michelle is of course only able to be met if the Local Plan Review leads to development which in turn will generate planning obligations on the developments and community infrastructure levy payments,” the leader added.

“The council has secured the £75m Housing Infrastructure Funding to part-finance the distributor road infrastructure if required for development, thus enabling master planning and infrastructure-led development.

“It is worth stating the requests are unchanged from when the HIF bid was made and the current consultation is about the detail of possible road routes which were not available at time of the bid.”