BATTLE lines have been drawn between developers hoping to build 180 homes in Wickwar and South Gloucestershire Council trying to stop them at the opening of a public inquiry.

Cllr Adrian Rush (Lib Dem, Chipping Sodbury & Cotswold Edge) handed in an 800-name petition gathered over just last weekend against the proposed expansion of the village, which councillors fear will ruin its character and eventually create a merger with Yate to the south.

Bloor Homes barrister Sasha White KC told a government-appointed planning inspector at the start of the eight-day hearing that the local authority had failed to provide enough homes or affordable housing and that there was no prospect of this, so permission should be granted to help meet the housing crisis.

Suzanne Ornsby KC, representing the council, said the harms of the proposals “significantly and demonstrably outweighed the benefits”.

The developers lodged an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate after the authority failed to make a decision in time.

South Gloucestershire Council is contesting the appeal after two planning committees agreed in August that they would have refused the application for four fields off Sodbury Road if the decision had been still in their hands.

Mr White told the hearing on Tuesday: “This is a suitable and appropriate location for housing."

Mr White said the local authority was required to provide 1,434 homes a year or 7,172 in the next five years.

He said the council’s development plan, with its housing policies, was accepted to be out of date.

He told the hearing at council headquarters in Yate that 35 per cent of the homes would be classed as affordable while the development would also provide a new shop, village gateway feature and highway improvements.

Mr White said Bloor would also fund the bus service and protections for Lower Wood Reserve.

Ms Ornsby said the adverse impacts included harm to the landscape, two listed farms classed as heritage assets and the wood, and the new residents would be reliant on cars.

She said the plans failed to provide adequate public transport even with a proposed contribution for the bus route, whose long-term future is uncertain.

Ms Ornsby said that even though the developers last week offered to increase their payment to protect the nature reserve from £35,000 to £100,000, this only matched the short-term cost of mitigation measures.