Former George Lane Police Station – Old Bill to Old Residents……?

Yet another retirement development for Marlborough. This time the area that is (still standing) the former Police Station in George Lane. Long since closed, replaced by the ‘Touch Down Point’ in the George Lane car park, the latest proposal and planning application – PL/2025/03165 – is for a ‘Retirement Living apartment block’. This proposal comprises thirty units of which seventeen will be one bedroom and thirteen will be two bedroom, with eighteen parking spaces to cover the entire development.

Several questions are being raised: The first (and most obvious) – does Marlborough need yet another retirement development? Will it be for current residents who are growing older and wish to downsize and sell/let their (larger?) property to a younger family? Or will it be for new residents to Marlborough looking to retire to the attractive town that Marlborough is, and the beautiful surrounding area which offers so much?

The second (and equally obvious) question is parking. Will residents of this new development have cars? Or will they rely on public transport? Thirty units, forty three bedrooms. The standard and accepted metric for parking spaces for any development is one per bedroom. And 0.2 spaces per unit for visitors. This would mean that there should be forty three spaces (bedroom metric) and a further six (visitor metric), totalling forty nine. But only eighteen spaces are planned, so where will the potential overspill number of cars – thirty one – park? Free? Or will there be season tickets (in George Lane car park)?. Or will all the residents locally, in George Lane, Culvermead Close and further around have to now watch out to stop their regular parking spaces being ‘nicked’ by those now living where the old Police Station used to be. Ironic. And public transport in and around Marlborough?

De velopers McCarthy & Stone did present to the Town Council in December last year. The Council voted unanimously to oppose this development. As well as the stress that this will place in the already creaking infrastructure (health – Doctors surgery, for example) of the town, there is a long time accepted belief that the town needs ‘affordable homes’, not more retirement complexes. The real need is for accommodation for younger members of the Marlborough community, and at a cost that their pockets can bear.

Originally there was a proposal for a development of affordable 2-3 bed family homes on this site. That developer decided against proceeding with that and McCarthy & Stone are the latest to step in and propose yet more of what Marlborough is currently stuffed with. And not all taken as at a nearby McCarthy & Stone development (base of Granham Hill) there are currently flats for sale.

Parking, Infrastructure, demographic shape of the town – is this what Marlborough really needs? Wiltshire Council’s ‘East’ Planning Committee are due to issue a decision soon, the latest date we have is 26 June. Marlborough West Councillor Jane Davies has already ‘called in’ this proposal so it isn’t yet ‘done and dusted’, there will be (likely quite vigorous) discussion but – this remains the front runner.

There are seventy seven ‘comments’ on the Planning Portal site, some from consulted bodies such as Fire & Rescue, but the rest, the vast majority from residents of Marlborough and the immediate area. Almost universally the cry is ‘No’. But will Wiltshire Council actually be listening? And if they are, will they take this wave of opinion into account? They should. We pay them. We’ll see……..