Battle lines are being drawn for 9 November when Swindon's future development as part of the Wiltshire Structure Plan 2011 is again examined in public at the Thistle Hotel, Fleming Way.

Government agencies believe that Swindon should be a growth centre of the future and wants to see 25,000 new homes in the town and 70,000 built in Wiltshire in the period 1991 to 2011. There is buyer pressure for new housing and developers are keen to build them.

Opposing this are a coalition of Swindon groups called URGENT (Urban Regeneration and Green-field Environment Network) which is calling for a lower number of houses to be built and restriction on employment land allocation. They believe that only 22,000 houses should be built during the time frame, and 66,000 across Wiltshire.

If the planning inspectors accept the higher figures, space for another 5,000 homes will have to be found by 2011 - in addition to the 10,000 home Northern Expansion which already has permission. Swindon Council and Wiltshire County Council propose that most of these houses are built on the Front Garden between Old Town and the M4 motorway.

A torchlight procession organised by the Front Garden Action Group took place on 1 November to protest against this proposal.

North Wilts District Council has to find space for another 3,500 houses and no sites have been identified yet. One option is to build them between the 11,000 homes in West Swindon and the village of Lydiard Millicent with only 350 houses.