OPPOSITION to the planned development of 67 houses on the greenfield land off Sandhole Lane in Westbury Leigh escalated last year after it was criticised by Westbury Town Council.
Town councillors voted against it in the strongest terms and the plans were subsequently turned down by Wiltshire Council. Westbury MP, Dr Andrew Murrison, also criticised the plans, saying that derelict sites should be developed before building new housing developments on green fields.
Local resident, Ben Gordon, formed a protest Facebook group, ‘Say No to Sandhole Lane Housing Development’, which gathered support. Before the appeal, he told White Horse News, “I believe I speak for the majority of the residents when I say Westbury doesn’t need more housing. What it needs is more infrastructure and more investment in the town itself, the roads are over congested and the town centre is extremely run down.”
“This attack on the surrounding green land affects each and every one of us in the town, not just the local residents of Leighton Park and Westbury Leigh, and we must unite to show Wiltshire Council that more and more houses is not the answer to Westbury.
“There is not adequate infrastructure in the town, an overwhelmed doctors’ surgery and cuts to public services, massive cuts to council budgets which means none of this is likely to change in the short to midterm.
“Residents don’t move into a small rural town for it to be turned into effectively a large urban town.”
After the plans were refused, Gleeson Strategic Land Ltd launched an appeal, which was held at the Laverton in Westbury.
Following Wiltshire Council’s approval of the appeal, giving the green light for the development, Ben Gordon said, “The community as a whole has done everything in our power to show our opposition to this, we submitted over 200 objections. There is absolutely no logic to this being approved and the residents of Leighton Park can’t understand how it was approved to use the existing estate as access.
“This application has clearly been railroaded through with no regard to the residents or wildlife, regardless if it’s protected or not. Wiltshire Council completely stabbed the residents in the back by initially objecting against the application on multiple grounds, to then turn around and withdraw several of the objections. We can’t help but feel the whole process is just a formality to make people feel as if they have a day, when in fact the truth is we don’t. The whole system is a complete joke.”
Ben says he has also found evidence of badger setts, something the Planning Inspectorate says they found no evidence of. Ben added, “There are many protected species on the proposed site, but the inspector’s report says there is no evidence of badger setts, (see the photos I have taken of badger setts). The law states it is illegal to disrupt badger setts and bats, but yet the inspector gets around this.”
White Horse News contacted Wiltshire Council for comment on the submitted photographs showing badger setts. Cllr Nick Botterill, Wiltshire Council cabinet member for development management and strategic planning said, “We refused planning application 20/11515/OUT on 23 March 2021, but it was subsequently allowed on appeal. The planning inspector did consider ecology matters and badger presence. In paragraph 53 he confirmed that “No evidence was found on the site of Great Crested Newts, dormouse, or badger setts. I have no substantive basis to dispute these findings or that the survey work undertaken was inadequate”.
To see the full report by the Planning Inspectorate, including the appeal conditions, visit www.wiltshire. gov.uk/planning-appeals
Pictured: A badger sett on the site near Sandhole Lane
