AGGREGATE and haulage company Earthline should now have left Wroughton Airfield for good following an enforcement notice, the council has said.

In May last year, the firm was given a 15-month deadline to undo a number of changes it had made to the site without planning permission and that date has now passed. 

Swindon Borough Council confirmed that this deadline passed on November 8 and a spokesperson said a member of its planning department will now visit the site to check if this has been done. 

The spokesperson added that if Earthline has not complied with the notice from the planning inspector the local authority could seek to prosecute Earthline. 

This follows a two-year dispute between the company and residents of Wroughton, Alexander Park, Chiseldon, Uffcott and Broad Hinton who have hotly protested against its presence in the area and the increased flow of HGVs passing through their homes. 

After taking ownership of the Wroughton Airfield site in 2014, Earthline had laid down hard standing to create a lorry park, built a weighbridge and office block to house staff and added a vehicle washing area and refuelling plant without obtaining planning permission. 

But in 2020, Swindon Borough Council ordered the company to remove it all. The firm appealed the decision to the government-appointed planning inspector.

The inspector dismissed Earthline's appeal against the council's decision and gave it 15 months to remove these unapproved additions to the site, and restore it to how it was, which included levelling the ground and re-seeding it with grass.

At the time, planning inspector Paul Dignan said: "I have found that a lawful use has not been demonstrated, in fact, no lawful use has been demonstrated, and it follows that the appeal on this ground, so far as the use is concerned, must fail."

The company was ordered to stop using the airfield as its base of operations by May 2023, which it allegedly did. 

In September, a new planning application was submitted Membury Estate Ltd, a company set up by Earthline director Rodney Coplestone in January, to retain the building marked for demolition by the enforcement notice, but this was swiftly thrown out by Swindon Borough Council. 

In October there was a heightened presence while Earthline is believed to have dismantled and removed its remaining infrastructure, and a member of the public reported seeing a large number of lorries leaving the site on Wednesday night. 

Earthline has been approached for comment.