A DECISION on whether to build houses on Westbury’s former hospital has been put off yet again; this time making it as far as the final planning committee before being postponed.
The application was originally to have been decided on in February, but has been delayed a number of times.
This month, Wiltshire Council’s planning committee met to make the final decision, but instead chose to postpone it again.
Councillors agreed that they should visit the site before voting – nearly nine months after the plans were first submitted, and almost four months after the final version of the plan was revealed.
Campaigners against the development are pleased with the outcome as they say it will give them a chance to prove the plans are unsuitable for the area.
The application to build houses on the site of the former hospital was first submitted in November last year, but a string of consultations and meeting delays has meant the decision, scheduled for February, still has not been made.
Campaign group Sensible Thinking on Patients (STOP), is arguing that the development would cause traffic and road safety issues.
Group chair Erica Watson said, “We were pleased that Wiltshire Council voted to defer the former Westbury Hospital site application and agree to arrange a site visit. We hope that this will help the committee understand the extreme challenges that road users will face trying to access the A350 and B3098 via The Butts and Orchard Road.
“These two roads are narrow and both have permanently parked cars, making using them more difficult and potentially dangerous, especially with the extra traffic which will be generated if 57 houses are built on the site.
“The STOP group is still meeting regularly to try to address the challenges that our small market town face because we feel passionately that our community cannot be repeatedly ignored.”
Town and county councillor Gordon King, a member of the planning committee considering the application, gave a detailed speech at the meeting about how Westbury was ‘under siege’ from developers, and slammed Wiltshire Council for ‘rolling over’ and not defending its own policies. He proposed the site visit that was agreed upon.
Cllr King said, “58 new dwellings is too much when the scale of local development is itself already too much; when the community is in danger of meeting its development targets ten years early; when the consequences of that means yet more development.
“58 dwellings is too much when a community feels overwhelmed and under siege because the planning system routinely lets them down. 58 dwellings is too much when the infrastructure is already in deficit, when it cannot absorb anything further.”
However, one town councillor has described the ongoing process as a ‘saga’ and a ‘waste of public money’.
Town councillor David Tout said, “The empty buildings are in a state of disrepair due to theft and vandalism. Sadly, yes, Westbury Hospital is no more; we are informed the White Horse Health Centre can provide the town’s medical services.
“It is time to stop fighting battles of the past and move on.”
