Councillors oppose town centre housing plans

A FULL planning application for 14 residential dwellings on a green space between Haynes Road and The Crescent has been objected to by Westbury Town Council and received unfavourable comments from some local residents on social media.

A planning application for two one-bedroom bungalows and 12 two-storey one-bedroom houses has been made for the green space site located between The Crescent and Haynes Road, behind the newly-renovated previous council house properties. 

The applicant, Belgravia 17 Ltd, state that the development, “is an appropriate development site and the proposals represent an exciting opportunity to provide a unique town centre development.”

Westbury Town Council objected to the planning application on 24th September on the  grounds of it being in breach of the Wiltshire Core Strategy and Core Policy 57, saying the design was not in keeping with the surrounding houses, with issues of overcrowdedness, accessibility, parking and congestion of the A350. 

On social media, residents also felt there were issues with the plans.

Gail Fisher commented on a post on Spotted Westbury, “Wow talk about cramped I did wonder why the bit behind had been fenced off…, totally ridiculous. Most people need a vehicle to get out of Westbury for services and shopping and jobs, screams of greed to me and not fair on residents that are going to have to have them behind their properties… all new housing applications in Westbury should be declined until services catch up….”

Ruth Davies said, “This development is not needed in Westbury, there is not a shortage of this type of dwelling. It is also out of keeping with the preservation of green space in Westbury. 

“Housing density is being ignored and there are no car parking spaces; if as suggested, using The Crescent and Avenue will cause access problems for residents and service vehicles. There is also the overlooking of homes in The Crescent if windows are facing that way. 

“If no windows are facing The Crescent then the occupants of the proposed development will have little natural light provisions.”

To view all documents relating to this planning application you can visit the Wiltshire Planning website and search using the planning number 18/ 08551/FUL. Comments are available to be made before Friday 19th October where a decision is targeted for Friday 7th December. 

Picture: The site of the planning application, between Haynes Road and The Crescent