More than 400 people living in Wanborough have signed a petition to stop Swindon Borough Council installing streetlights along the main road between the village and Swindon.

The council will install the lights between the village and Redlands New Eastern Village which will see 370 houses built, with one of the main access roads being Wanborough Road.

But the petition signed by 453 people from the village says: "Installation of street lighting along the Wanborough Road will have a detrimental impact on the rural status of the road as well as reduce the rural identity of Wanborough village.

“Streetlights will also have an impact on the Wanborough conservation area as they will be seen easily from the High Street, which is unlit.”

It will be presented to the council at its full meeting on Thursday December 7.

There are council policies of non-coalescence designed to prevent development in the countryside between Swindon and Wanborough eating up the village – but in this case the authority will remain unmoved.

A response by the council’s cabinet member for highways maintenance Kevin Parry says: “The Redlands planning consent was approved in 2019 and this included obligations on the developer, including significant changes to the Wanborough Road.

“These include narrowing of the carriageway, the construction of a pavement between Wanborough and Lotmead, build-outs to slow traffic at regular intervals and a new priority junction into the Redlands Grove development. In addition to these changes the Wanborough Road will have a signalised junction with the Southern Connector Road.

“As part of the detailed design process, provision of street lighting was considered necessary and essential by Highways as informed by a road safety audit. As well as pedestrians using the footpath between the village and Redlands, the ‘build-out’ traffic calming features will introduce new and unfamiliar objects on the highway for motorists, as well as the new road junctions.”

The response says the lamp posts are not as high as standard, there will be shields to prevent light spillage and the lights will be dimmed to 60 per cent after 10 pm and to 40 per cent between midnight and 6am.

Saying the road safety audit said lights were necessary, Coun Parry concludes: “If the council disregards road safety and goes against technical requirements, and an accident occurs it will be unable to provide a defence if the county coroner questions why it ignored the advice provided.

“For the safety reasons outlined the proposed installation of street lighting will proceed."