On Monday evening Marlborough Town Council’s Planning Committee unanimously rejected application PL/2024/0019 submitted for developers Sherborne St Peters Ltd to convert St. Peter’s, the former school into residential dwellings. The primary grounds for rejection were that the proposed plan, bringing the total number of residential buildings on the site to twenty, makes no provision for affordable housing. Marlborough Area Neighbourhood Plan makes it clear just how much affordable housing is needed in the town and only last November Marlborough Town Council declared an affordable housing emergency – see Marlborough.news article here.
Speaking at the Planning Committee Meeting, Cllr Lisa Farrell said, “We are in desperate need of affordable homes for people who live in the town, not retirees.” This echoed Cllr Mark Cooper’s comments from last November, “It’s really important that those Marlburians, who have family links to this town, who’ve been to school in this town, who care about this town, who want to stay in this town, have the opportunity to do just that. To live here. For many, without the support of their families, there would be no way they could.”
Ex Wiltshire and Marlborough Town Councillor, Stuart Dobson, also brought to the attention of the meeting the need to maintain the heritage of the St Peter’s building. There is a Foundation of the school plaque built into the brickwork and a metal plaque designating the building as a grammar school. There is also the question of the school bell, forged in 1803 by the Aldbourne Bell Company – what has happened to it? Is it still there? A proposal to maintain the heritage of the building as well as an investigation into the whereabouts of the bell was accepted and will be included in the Council’s response to the planning application.
In addition, in the light of the recent floods, it was proposed and accepted that there should be further flood risk assessments carried out. Cllr Mervyn Hall stated, “They need to take another look. The 2020/2021 risk assessment reports were very optimistic.”
Marlborough Town Council’s recommendations and proposals will be passed to Wiltshire Council who make the final decision. To read more about PL/2024/0019 read Marlborough.news article here.
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