A RESIDENTS' town plan drawn up by more than 70 volunteers over two years will be re-written by two paid officers.

Wantage Neighbourhood Plan, which was supposed to give residents control over development in the area, will be taken away from public control, Wantage Town Council agreed on Monday.

Mayor Steve Trinder said the volunteers who drew up the plan using 1,600 residents' feedback wanted to do things such as protecting green spaces which could not legally be done.

Instead, Wantage deputy town clerk will re-write the plan with the help of a planning officer from Vale of White Horse District Council.

Julie Mabberley, who led the plan over the past two years and organised town-wide consultations, said the new plan would not be worth the paper it was printed on.

She went on: "I think we will end up with a very watered-down plan.

"They will take out anything that is controversial and they won't consider re-working anything because that will involve more time than either of them have.

"One councillor said at the meeting 'what about making sure the town people are still involved?' and another councillor simply said 'the work being done will be reported at council meetings'.

"I am disappointed for myself and the volunteers who put in so much effort."

The council took the decision after a Government planning inspector rejected the draft plan in August because of lack of evidence for its policies.

Among the biggest problems was the team had designated several private gardens as "Local Green Space" without the owners' permission, which the owners said would affect their insurance and give the impression their gardens were public land.

Despite that, the team said they were more than prepared to spend another year re-writing it.

But Mayor Steve Trinder said volunteers had continued pushing to do things which were not allowed in the National Planning Policy Framework.

He said: "The volunteers identified every bit of green space in Wantage and put it in the plan, and you can't do that.

"Because they were volunteers I assumed they knew what they were doing but clearly if we designate peoples' gardens as public green spaces and the owners don't like it that is going to delay the process."

He said the deputy clerk would still try to protect as many green spaces as possible.

The first draft of the new version will go out to a public consultation next year and Mr Trinder said he hoped it would be in place within two years.

Neighbourhood Plans, created under the 2011 Localism Act, allow communities to specify where new homes should be built and which bits of land should be protected.

They must adhere to national and local planning policy, but if they are accepted and pass a town-wide referendum they become a legal part of local planning policy and developers are required to demonstrated how they have taken the plan into account.

When asked if Monday's decision had dented her faith in the Neighbourhood Plan process, Ms Mabberley said: "My faith in the planning system as a whole is very low, as is my faith in the district council or the town council to listen to the views and aspirations of the residents. The neighbourhood plan system is just part of the whole."