CALLS are being made for a new neighbourhood plan, in light of several major developments proposed for the town.
A neighbourhood plan would set out what developments Westbury needs. It would draw on work already done in other plans such as the Westbury Vision and Scoping Study, and Westbury Community Area Plan, as well as developing the outline policies set by Wiltshire Council’s Core Strategy for the county.
Proposed developments for Westbury currently include houses outside the town boundaries, a community campus and new business park.
Westbury and Wiltshire councillor Russell Hawker explained, “Westbury is facing all kinds of development pressures which may or may not match the town’s needs in terms of housing, employment and infrastructure.”
Existing policies have been incorporated into the core strategy, but may need re-examining as new developments come onto the cards.
“One old West Wilts district plan policy that is being carried over into the Core Strategy, for example, is the housing allocation called H14 located north of the railway line by Oldfield Road, roughly between the western point where the railway tracks cross and the Station Road lake to the east. Another district plan policy defines the location of the town centre where specific retail policies apply. In Westbury, these detailed retail policies need to be examined and revised in the light of changing circumstances.
“Over the last few months, it has become increasingly clear that developers might be able to take advantage of Westbury’s lack of a neighbourhood plan when they put in planning applications for developing land which is not identified in the core strategy as allocated for development. Also, the emerging proposals from the Westbury campus project steering group, mean that to properly explore all possible options, including a single site town centre location, we need to engage in some form of all-round consultation exercise which would look at various parts of the town for development anyway.
“The neighbourhood planning process involves detailed consultation with the local community on all aspects of the ideas being considered. I would expect a dozen or so separate consultations to occur over a period of about 18-24 months to achieve what we need in Westbury.
“The neighbourhood plan would have to be adopted via a public referendum at the end of the process, when the steering group presents the final version. Once adopted, all planning applications in Westbury parish would have to comply with the plan.”
Councillor Hawker says that Westbury Town Council should lead the process of creating a neighbourhood plan, drawing on the work done in the Westbury Vision and Scoping Study of April 2011. However, it would look to Wiltshire Council to pay for the exercise.
