PLANS to build 46 homes and create a 4.5 acre village green in Winterslow have been lodged - four years after residents tried to prevent any development by starting legal action to claim the land as their own.

Developer Primetower Properties has submitted the outline planning application which includes 18 affordable homes next to the village hall in Middleton Road as well as a new play area and new public rights of way.

In 2013, a group of residents called Winterslow Opposed to Overdevelopment (WOOD) battled to get the 11.5 acre field and neighbouring 7.5 acre copse designated as a village green.

At the time development proposals on the field involved homes, a children's nursery, an employment hub and accommodation for elderly people.

Using a section under the Commons Act 2006, its case hinged on whether residents had been using the site for "lawful sports and pastimes" for a period of at least 20 years.

In March 2015, a planning inspector concluded that the field be dismissed from the village green rights application due to WOOD not having proved "sufficiently" qualifying uses but he recommended the copse - designated as a County Wildlife Site - be classified as a village green.

The landowners, Richard and Trish Sheppard who farm in the village, spent £20,000 fighting the legal action, and it cost taxpayers at least £15,000.

The new plans which include new footpath connections between Highfield Crescent, Middleton Road, and the village have so far provoked one objection from a resident saying the infrastructure in the village is unable to cope with the development.

If permission is granted, a further application will then be submitted relating to details of appearance, landscaping, layout and scale.

According to the planning statement, draft developer contributions involve £100k for the village hall extension, £25k for adult fitness equipment, £40k for outdoor lights and a boiler at Barry’s Field and £20k for new swings at the recreation ground or towards public open space.

A public consultation on the plans runs until April 20 with a target date for decision being June 16.

For more details search for 17/02002/OUT on the Wiltshire Council planning website.