HISTORIC Roman, medieval and 16th century remains stood to be lost forever if a proposed land-fill site went ahead, an Alveston land owner claimed in March 2006.

Villagers from Alveston, Almondsbury and Olveston attended a packed public meeting to head details of the proposed one million square metre tip on Green belt land at Hortham Farm, Alveston.

Local historian Sir George White spoke at the meeting, telling residents that the tip could destroy important archaeological remains.

Matthew McCann, director of developers Terry Adams Ltd, assured the meeting that a full archaeological survey had been carried out to assess potential damage, but Sir George told the Gazette that the report had ignored an old Roman road that directly crossed the site.

He also claimed that remains from a nearby Roman villa could be lost.

Sir George said: “A lot of villas have been excavated and we always find outlying buildings around them, so the worry is not the villa itself but the tremendous amount of external buildings could be lost.

“There is a strong possibility that there is something under the tip site. It is a great and very significant landscape, In terms of North Avon, it is very important as there is nothing like this villa anywhere in this area.”

Mr Gilbert Pearse, whose house stands a couple of fields away from the proposed site, spoke of his worry that the tip could have an effect on the wildlife.

"It is going to upset the whole food chain in the area. This is an ancient area and the field itself is historic. If this was allowed it would be gone forever."

Representatives from Terry Adams Ltd. Offered reassurance to over 150 villagers at the public meeting about worry of increased traffic and pollution.

Mr McCann said access would be restricted to lorries coming from the A38. Lorries using the narrow B4059 through Latteridge would be banned from the site.

He denied the A38 would become overloaded, saying the 50 vehicles a day entering the site would be spread across the working day.