WESTBURY’S Neighbourhood Plan, which has involved countless hours of work over the years by councillors, council staff, and members of the public, will now be submitted to Wiltshire Council.
A town’s Neighbourhood Plan is a document that gives local people the power to protect valued heritage sites and green spaces, as well as creating a plan for where housing sites should be allocated.
Westbury’s Neighbourhood Plan was signed off by members of the full town council at an extraordinary meeting held on 3rd April. Wiltshire Council will now carry out a further stage of consultation and the plan will be examined by an independent planning examiner. The final stage in the process will be a referendum where residents of Westbury get to decide if the Neighbourhood Plan should come into force. This is expected to be held in the spring next year.
If given approval, the Neighbourhood Plan will provide local planning policies for the town and become a part of the development plan that Wiltshire Council must use when determining planning applications in Westbury.
Two sites for development
As part of the plan, the town council has allocated two sites for development in Westbury for around 65 houses at land off Bitham Park, and 30 dwellings on land between Mill Brook and Coach Road.
At the town council meeting, cllr Gordon King said, “I would like to thank Ian Cunningham, the late Mike Kettlety, and Kate Knight for helping steer the Neighbourhood Plan. Without this plan the town would be completely naked, but with it we have an element of protection.
“I have no hesitation that we should send this off, given the hours of work that has gone into this, not to mention the money spent, which would most likely approach £100,000 over the years for this to progress. This is not set in stone, and we will adapt and change to make reference to future changes or comments.”
At the meeting councillors explained the importance of having an up-to-date Neighbourhood Plan as it would have to be taken into consideration when developers look to build in the area.
5-year land supply
Wiltshire Council is required to identify sites for housing developments, and government policy requires them to find a minimum of five years’ supply to ensure housing targets are met. However, Wilshire Council does not currently have a five-year housing land supply and as a consequence, local councils may lose control over where new homes are built.
Speaking on this, cllr Mike Sutton said, “We have objected to eight developments within the town that were all overruled by Wiltshire Council as they do not have a five-year housing land supply. A Neighbourhood Plan does not give you 100% control of your destiny, but it allows you to point that destiny in the right direction.”
Cllr Kate Knight said, “If we can get the plan moving, there are benefits, as we can help to overrule the issue of the lack of a five-year housing land supply by allocating two sites for development.”
Cllr Philip Harcourt said, “We were asked by Wiltshire Council to make provision for 710 houses – we have allocated for just 95.
Delay proposed
At the public forum section in the meeting, two residents approached the council to see whether they could delay sending off the Neighbourhood Plan so that amendments could be made to reference the town’s planned waste incinerator and recently-appealed gas peaking plant.
Speaking at the meeting, Deanne de Roche said, “A potential independent challenge to the incinerator decision is on the cards; the timing of this plan seems to be out of sync and a delay would be appropriate so that we can discuss outcomes from our investigations and whether details about the incinerator and gas peaking plans should be included in the Neighbourhood Plan or not. This plan offers no protections from exploitation.”
Dan Gmaj added, “We’re very much in support of what the town council is trying to do. However, if this plan goes forward to Wiltshire Council and eventually comes back to the public and no mention of the incinerator or the gas peaking plant and how the town council is planning to protect our environment from these plans is found, I think it would be an opportunity missed.”
In response, cllr Kate Knight explained that the incinerator has been spoken about extensively in relation to the Neighbourhood Plan over the past few years, but that it isn’t the role of the Neighbourhood Plan to hold developers to account.
She said, “There was a well-publicised consultation process that we extended to give residents the opportunity to have their say – every household had a leaflet, and many public meetings were held.
“We have made amendments as per the feedback to the consultation that included strengthening the policy on traffic and its implication on air quality. The plan is about looking forward – we can’t look at things that have been resolved. It is the responsibility of Wiltshire Council to uphold planning conditions – it isn’t the role of this plan.”
Cllr Philip Harcourt said, “We have to make sure that whatever we are putting forward is resilient and can stand the vigorous tests that are put to it – if we don’t, we could end up like Warminster and have the plan thrown out which means we would have to restart the process again.
“If the plan is thrown out because there are things there that shouldn’t be, then we go right back to the beginning of the entire process and we do not want to have to do this. We would all love to include something in the plan that says that the town does not approve of incineration, we simply can’t as this is not the right document to do this.”
Cllr Jane Russ said, “This plan has been out in the public for a very long time and residents have had the opportunity to comment for a while now. This is not the last time this will come to the public forum. If we don’t have a Neighbourhood Plan at all, we could be opened up to all sorts of horrors.”
Cllr Mark Bailey added that the town council is still looking at ways to fight against the incinerator, but reiterated that the Neighbourhood Plan is not the right document to do this and that it would undermine the plan if they tried to link the two issues.
You can view the Neighbourhood Plan in full by visiting the Westbury Town Council website. A hard copy of the Neighbourhood Plan is available for you to read at the Laverton if needed.
Westbury’s Neighbourhood Plan sent off for review (housing site allocations)
