RESIDENTS are being urged to help stop plans for 1,000 new homes in the Malmesbury area. Wiltshire councillor for the town, Gavin Grant, has written to residents in 11 areas cited for new housing developments urging them to speak out. Wiltshire Council is currently consulting on 11 potential sites in and around Malmesbury that could take new houses. If all were developed another 1,000 houses would be built. In his letter Councillor Grant says residents must speak out to oppose these plans before the end of the Wiltshire Council consultation on Tuesday, March 9. Explaining why he had written his letter, Cllr Grant said: “Malmesbury is a special and beautiful place. There are only a few days left to speak up to tell Wiltshire Council that we want to keep it that way.”
MORE than 30 town and parish councils - including Downton and Laverstock - have joined together to appeal for help in protecting the future of neighbourhood planning . The councils have formed the Wiltshire Area Localism and Planning Group (WALPA), and represent more than 200,000 residents across the county. They say urgent action is needed, with Wiltshire s town and parish councils suffering because of significant loopholes in planning legislation . They add that carefully drafted neighbourhood plans - reflecting the views of local communities - can be overruled, unless Wiltshire Council is consistently able to maintain five years’ worth of available housing land. At the moment, they say, Wiltshire does not have that critical five–year supply, which means that developers are challenging Neighbourhood Plans as soon as they are two years old.
Cllr Tony Nicklin DEVELOPERS should be taken to task for not building new homes as soon as they gain planning permission for them, says a Warminster town councillor. Cllr Tony Nicklin, the chairman of Warminster Town Council s planning advisory committee and chairman of the town s Neighbour Plan working group, says they are fed up of developers gaining planning approval and then sitting on their applications instead of building the new homes for which they have been given permission. Speaking during an online webinar as part of Wiltshire s Local Plan Review consultation, Cllr Nicklin asked why Warminster continues to contribute to Wiltshire Council s housing deficit.
DEVIZES people have called for a special area of land near Drews Pond and its nature reserve to be protected. The land at Greenacres has been included as a potential development site in the town’s local development plan. The land borders the former railway line and locals say it has become a haven for bats, birds and deer. Pheasants and squirrels were spotted foraging there when the Gazette visited the site. Angela Taylor, who moved to Devizes from Cornwall , said: “You rarely get space like this, it’s really special. I’m disabled, and it’s also one of the few green places I can access and enjoy properly, I really don’t want to lose it.
REVEALED: The Devizes areas earmarked for future development People throughout Devizes and the surrounding area can now have their say on the Local Plan review, and the Gypsy and Travellers Plan, as the consultations begin this week. The Local Plan consultation provides an opportunity for residents, business and other Wiltshire stakeholders, such as town and parish councils, to share their views on where future development - including housing, infrastructure and land for employment - may be built in their area for the next 15 years. The council is also holding a series of online engagement sessions to enable people to find out more about the proposals their area.