PLANS for new houses on Fairdown Avenue have been rejected by Wiltshire Council, to the relief of local residents.
And campaigners hope that the refusal of the application to build 29 houses will dissuade development on surrounding fields.
When the plans were put forward earlier this year there was an outcry among nearby residents while Westbury town councillors unanimously agreed to object to the application. The site in question bordered existing houses on Fairdown Avenue and Newtown, as well as Westbury Cemetery and a field.
A key objection was that the development falls outside the town policy limits (which define the boundaries for the town’s development), and also falls on land that should be protected as a special landscape area. Residents raised their concerns that, if this development was to go ahead, it would lead the way for further development of the surrounding fields.
Local resident Mike Pearce said, “It was outside of the boundary, it was unanimous at the town council it shouldn’t go. I’m very pleased, this is what lines are for.
“Residents will be pleased, especially the people of Fairdown Avenue; they were the ones who were going to take a tremendous amount of traffic.
“Sometimes there is a reason to complain, sometimes you have to accept things, but this time the reason was it was outside the town limits and it would have opened the next field up and before we knew it we’d have another estate.”
