Ridgeway ward has just one seat, due to its small population, but that one councillor will have to deal with some big issues.

The ward retains the same name and boundaries as the existing ward, covering the villages of Wanborough, Liddington, Hinton Parva and Bishopstone.

In Wanborough, resident Margaret Greenwood, of Yonder Way, said the core issue was noise from Redlands Airfield, which is used by light aircraft for parachute jumps by skydivers.

After a barrage of complaints from East Swindon over several years, Swindon Council reviewed the consent in July 2011.

The planning committee followed officers’ advice and did not take any action on the airfield, but decided to forward the issue to the Civil Aviation Authority.

Margaret, who has lived in the village for about 30 years, said she would like the new ward councillor to ask the council to fight to remove the planning permission by investigating whether it should have been granted at all.

“The issue is noise pollution,” she said. “It’s a huge, huge disruption in that you are peaceful and suddenly you get the huge noise of an aeroplane taking off at the airfield.

“It then circles around properties wherever it chooses to go, whether it’s Covingham, Liddington, Wanborough, and it’s a nauseating buzz, and then they drop parachutists.”

However, she said not everyone shared her view and some people would claim they do not hear the aircraft and it does not bother them.

Gary Sumner, the chairman of Wanborough Parish Council, said: “The only thing I would say is some of the residents have highlighted concerns about skydiving activities at Redlands.

“However, as far as the parish council is concerned, they’re operating within planning consents.”

He said a major issue locally was the proposal to earmark land in the area for 7,500 homes and an industrial park as part of the draft Core Strategy.

The proposed area goes from South Marston in the north, towards Bourton in the east, and as far as the northern parts of Wanborough in the south.

Mr Sumner said he wanted tho new councillor to ensure these is funding for the associated roads, schools and other infrastructure so the local infrastructure is not adversely affected.

He said: “We accept there will be thousands of houses required for Swindon to expand in the future but that they need to be carefully designed and located in order to minimise the impact on existing residents.”

In Liddington, Gordon Wilson, the chairman of the parish council, said mitigation would be needed to reduce the impact on the existing villages.

He said the recently-approved project to build an 890-home development at Coate was also an election issue.

“Swindon Council let us down because they marked the land at Coate for development in the Core Strategy without any consultation ,” he said.

The owners of Redlands Airfield were unavailable for comment.