WESTBURY Town Council hopes to get a handle on housebuilding and secure more money to improve Westbury, as it looks to draw up a neighbourhood plan over the coming year.
The council has committed to starting a neighbourhood plan in the coming months in a bid to try and control where new houses are built in future, and to secure more ‘community benefit money’ from developers.
Westbury’s town and county councillor Gordon King is kickstarting the plan. He told White Horse News, “I’m very keen for the this project to get moving now. A steering group of up to around 20 members will be set up with three or four councillors and hopefully a number of local business owners and professionals.
“We will be investigating where the town would rather development took place, and what sorts of things people want to see in Westbury.
“The plan will give local people so much more say on how Westbury is developed in the future, which is very important.
“At the moment development is not plan-led, and the town doesn’t have much defence against planning applications. If we have a plan and someone tries to build outside of it, we would have an automatic reason for refusal.
“The town council will also be able to demand twice as much community benefit money from developers building in Westbury, which can be spent on things that local people want.
“There’s a lot of work to be done but it’s a choice of leaving the decisions to other authorities and letting things happen, or getting a grip and making local people’s voices heard.”
A neighbourhood plan is an official council document that gives communities more control over the future of their area and tries to ensure new developments are more beneficial to the town.
Once the plan has been drawn up by the steering group it will go to a town referendum and must be voted in by local residents.
Cllr King said he hopes the plan will be ready for a vote in 18 months’ time. More details will be released as the plan progresses.
