This comes after Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet voted to take the housing development idea to a pre-planning stage instead of the options for 400 homes or for turning the entire former Twigmarket facility near the A361 into a country park.
Paul New from the Action Group to save Highworth’s Old Golf Course said: “From all of us in the core team, a huge thank you to the hundreds of you that gave up an entire evening to attend, in person or via video link.
“What an incredible bunch of people, and neighbours, you all are!
“Whilst [Wednesday] night made it painfully obvious, to all who witnessed it, exactly what we are up against it has only steeled our resolve to fight even harder.
“We will take the weekend to allow the frustration to subside, regroup next week, and plan our next moves. Cabinet unwittingly gave us a lot of very helpful clues last night as to what our strategy should be going forward.
“A huge thank you to everyone of you for being so brilliant!
“And to our friends at Swindon Borough Council, I once again misquote somebody rather infamous: ‘We won’t just go away, you know’!”
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Swindon North MP Will Stone is also against the idea of building houses on part of the rewilded green space and emphasised his backing of the Highworth residents’ campaign after the meeting concluded.
He wrote: “I am disappointed by this decision.
“As we move into the next stage of this process, I intend to meet with Highworth Town Council to discuss how I can best support the people of Highworth during this time.
“The next phase is the pre-application process which will allow residents and councillors to work with prospective developers to improve the application and address some of the concerns raised at the Cabinet meeting last night by members of the public.
“I have offered to meet with the borough councillors for Blunsdon and Highworth, recommending that they call in the planning application so it can be effectively scrutinised at committee.
“I will continue to engage with them and Highworth Town Council throughout the planning process.”