WILTSHIRE Council was described as being in “cloud cuckoo land” for suggesting that the Maltings or Central Car Park would be a better location than Southampton Road for a proposed 65-bed hotel and McDonald’s drive-through.

The remarks were made at a planning hearing to decide the fate of the proposal after councillors rejected it last year, citing traffic fears and poor design.

As the development is out of town, the developer needed to show that they had considered other alternative venues in the city.

However, David Milton from the Wiltshire Council planning department claimed that they had not been approached as owners of the Maltings site as to whether they would consider a drive-through and hotel.

Hitting back, Arfon Hughes from developer Mango Planning described the council as “showing a complete lack of commerciality” as the Maltings site had no links to the road network.

They argue a drive-through restaurant requires passing trade to be viable.

He also derided Culver Street as being commercially unsuitable as the cost of raising it to the level of the road was too great and to suggest it as a location showed the council was “out of touch with reality”.

“[Wiltshire Council] seem to think that you can stack it up like a Tower of Pisa,” Mr Hughes said. “We live in the real world.”

The development is planned for the strip of scrubland between the Tesco superstore and the Southampton Road park and ride site.

Developers had hoped to bring 95 jobs to the city and improve traffic flow on Milford Mill Road by installing traffic lights at the railway bridge.

They say fears over traffic had been overstated, with most customers coming from passing trade and 15 per cent being diverted from the the city centre McDonald’s.

Simon Berry from Mango Planning has previously said the developer was investing £7million in the scheme, with both Premier Inn and McDonald’s committed to the site for 25 years. Division councillor Ian Tomes has previously said any budget hotel should be in the city centre.

A final decision on whether to approve the scheme will now be taken by planning inspector Michael Boniface.