2 weeks Ago
Under the previous government, the council had a target to provide 1,917 new homes a year, but under the new planning rules introduced by the current government, 3,525 new homes a year must be built in the county – an increase of 85 per cent. The council’s strategic planning committee was considering an application for a new housing development in Holt, a village on the main road between Melksham and Bradford on Avon. Wiltshire-based housebuilder Redcliffe Homes wants to build 55 new dwellings on a field on the eastern edge of Holt, and councillors heard impassioned pleas from villagers to decline the application.
The site is directly opposite another parcel of land where Bewley Homes won permission to build 90 units after Wiltshire Council turned down the application. Kenny Green, the council’s planning manager, told members of the committee that the council was on course to miss its housing provision target, and that the government could take decision-making powers away from Wiltshire Council if it continued to reject proposals that were later overturned at appeal. “The government says that if councils breach (overturns of) 10 per cent there is a very real risk of them entering special measures.
This means the council cannot determine applications – and we’re getting close to that 10 per cent.” Mr Green said planning inspector overturns were already at more than seven per cent and reminded councillors that there was a “significant shortage” of new houses in the pipeline. Tom O’Connor, managing director of Redcliffe Homes, said his firm – which has constructed more than 800 houses in Wiltshire over the past 30 years and is currently building 240 homes at sites in Devizes and Chippenham – had won design awards and prided itself on providing quality homes.
“We employ hundreds of local contractors and tradespeople,” he said. “This development is aimed at older people who are downsizing and young families looking for their first home.” A community orchard and children’s play area form part of the proposal.
The homes, a mix of detached, semi-detached, and terraced two-storey houses with a number of bungalows, would benefit from air source heat pumps and electric vehicle chargers. Twenty-two of the houses would be designated affordable and 13 would be made available for social rent. Residents objected on the grounds of increased traffic, the danger posed to children crossing the busy Melksham to Bradford on Avon road, and the loss of a green field with a popular walk to Great Chalfield Manor, a National Trust property.
Steve Siddall, chairman of Holt Parish Council, told committee members: “If you approve this application you will have spoiled a Wiltshire village to cut a negligible 1.5 per cent of the housing shortfall. “If you are going to approve this application and all others like it on the basis of land supply, then you call into question your need to exist.
“Look to where housing is actually needed, not here where it is clearly not.” Proposing that the committee grant outline planning permission – which means the development can go ahead in principle – committee member Cllr Adrian said: “I understand the local concerns here. “I didn’t want the development on the other side of the road, and I think the decision was one of the worst the planning inspector has made.
“But being pragmatic, I cannot see that any inspector will make a different decision on this development. “I propose we go ahead. I know the locals won’t be happy with that.
” The application was permitted by six votes to three..
