A plan for more than 150 houses on the cleared Motorola factory site and car park next to the A419 to be built by furniture giant Ikea has been shelved.

The site has been allocated for housing in the local plan drawn up by Swindon Borough Council- and in early 2022 developer BoKlok – a joint venture between Ikea and building firm Skanska – put in a plan for the site for 159 houses which would have been built offsite in modular fashion and trucked onto the land.

BoKlok’s application said: “The homes are built in factory conditions and constructed off site for a fast building programme that accelerates the delivery of homes.”

The plan was for 111 houses built as semi-detached units or in short terraces of three and four, and 48 flats in two three-storey blocks.

There would have been 16 “affordable” units and 20 made available for social rent.

The application read: "Despite the town edge location and previous employment use, there are many amenities within easy walking distance of the site.

"The nearest primary school is Abbey Meads, around 1km walk away, largely off-road via safe cycle/footways.”

The submitted drawings show the site would have houses set out in two main blocks, with two blocks of flats at the southern part of the site. A large segment of the north part of the site would have been allocated as a park, and the eastern and northern edges of the site would also be green land, with the boundary fringed with trees and hedges.

The plan was to build 11 houses and flats for sale, 16 “affordable” houses and flats and 20 units for social rent.

The BoKlok application was for the same sit, and the same number of houses, as an application submitted in 2019 jointly by Homes England.

Persimmon Homes, which has a proposal lodged to build 1500 houses in Kingsdown and a bridge across the A419 to the site in question, objected to BoKlok’s plan, mainly on the grounds of ensuring that the transport network in the area could cope with the expansion.

It said: “No additional occupations should be permitted until the proposed transport mitigation measures, including the bridge, have been completed.”

BoKlok’s application is now listed as withdrawn on Swindon Borough Council’s website.