Wiltshire Council says ‘no’ for third time to 200 new houses at edge of town

CONTROVERSIAL plans to build 200 new houses between The Ham and the West Wiltshire Trading Estate have been rejected for a third time by Wiltshire Council over fears of overdevelopment.

Gladman Developments have been trying to secure planning permission for the site on land off Storridge Road since 2018 but the plans have been routinely rejected by Wiltshire Council and continuously objected to by local residents. They raised concerns over the impact on local services should the houses be built and of overdevelopment in the area.

This development would have also required the demolition of numbers 13 and 14 Storridge Road for access purposes.

Wiltshire Council found that insufficient information had been submitted in order to “robustly assess” whether up to 200 dwellings could be satisfactorily accommodated on the site, which lies outside Westbury’s settlement boundary.

The council also noted that the proximity of West Wiltshire Trading Estate could have a significant adverse impact from noise on future residents.

Westbury mayor, cllr Mike Sutton, has welcomed the news as he says it’s important to “preserve the space between the industrial estate and housing, and this development would have closed that gap.”

He said, “The decision to refuse the development is welcome, although an appeal or revised application is still possible. Westbury has had large development these past few years without any associated infrastructure, and this would have been no exception. The strain on local services such as schools and doctors would be increased.

“Even if development takes place outside the Westbury settlement boundary in surrounding parishes or hamlets, the great majority of those residents will use Westbury facilities and so any reduction in that pressure is to be welcomed.”

Ex-councillor David Jenkins, who lives at The Ham said, “The situation here in the Westbury area is that it is around 40% more overdeveloped that it should be and the fact that this development has been refused is excellent – at least Wiltshire Council now has some control over speculative development.”

Recent changes to the government’s National Planning Policy Framework will now provide protection for communities against speculative housing developments being forced onto towns as it has removed the requirement for planning authorities that have an up-to-date plan in place to update annually their five-year supply of land.

This change provides local authorities with additional protection from the presumption in favour of sustainable development. Local authorities who have a local plan and proposed allocations towards meeting housing need, now only have to demonstrate a four-year housing land supply (as opposed to five years).

David Jenkins added, “Previously, developers could target the Westbury area as Wiltshire Council fell short in their land supply, which means developers could speculate and say that a number of houses should be built locally and we couldn’t do much about it, as the council did not meet the requirements of having a five year housing land supply, and so planning permission was given.

“We now have some kind of control over development which is great. The developers may well come back again with a revised application, but at least now we have some kind of protection.”

The full details of the reasons given for Wiltshire Council’s refusal can be found on the Planning and Building Control Public Register using reference PL/2022/09842.