‘Our community has no voice’ – Campaigners pen scathing letter to Government

WILTSHIRE Council ‘blatantly ignored’ Westbury people and ‘abused its power’ by giving planning permission for housing on Westbury’s former hospital, campaigners have said in a fierce letter to the Government.

Members of Westbury group Sensible Thinking on Patients (STOP), which fought to try and save the town’s community hospital, last month penned an official complaint to the Government over Wiltshire Council’s decision to allow the hospital to be turned into a housing estate.

The letter, addressed to a senior manager  at the Government’s National Planning Casework Unit says, “We are ordinary people in the small town of Westbury and our Prime Minister has said that she wants our voices to be heard and indeed you yourself say that communities should have more power.

“Our community have no voice and no power and Wiltshire Council have neither listened nor taken our views into account at all. Their focus has been entirely on avoiding a planning appeal and ignoring both the evidence presented to them and their own Core Strategy.”

The campaign group was disappointed when in September, after months of delay, the county council approved the NHS’s application for permission to demolish the hospital and build 58 homes there.

STOP had begun its campaign in 2015 by arguing that the town needed the hospital to reopen, but later made ‘material’ objections – the only type usually considered by planners – over roads and traffic in the area. The group also campaigned to have the site retained for other health uses if the hospital couldn’t be re-opened.

The group has claimed local people were not able to impact the decision and that it was not democratic. Around 200 letters were received by Wiltshire Council in response to the application, in what a planning officer called a ‘substantial level of public objection’.

MP for South West Wiltshire, Andrew Murrison, had voiced his support for the campaigners but did not contribute to the consultation.

STOP’s letter continued, “Our MP Andrew Murrison has been a supporter of community hospitals for many years but has little influence to make a difference for our community. He has not yet responded to my recent requests for advice regarding Wiltshire Councils decision to allow a hospital to be demolished for financial gain.

“Appallingly none of the profit from the sale of the site will be invested in Westbury, a town whose people have contributed over a million pounds to support its own health care. Instead of being rewarded for our contributions we have been ignored and treated as second class citizens with no voice even at local level.”

STOP’s letter was sent to the casework unit, local press, Andrew Murrison MP, health secretary Jeremy Hunt, and prime minister Theresa May.