The slightly altered version of plans for the housing development on the play area off Rabley Wood View have attracted more than 30 objections from nearby residents. Last month the new plans were rejected again – and unanimously – by the town council.
No date has yet been set for a second hearing before Wiltshire Council’s Eastern Planning Committee – it is not on the agenda for the Committee’s meeting next Thursday (April 2.).
And there has been no response to the call by local residents for an independent review due to Wiltshire Council’s conflict of interest as owners of the land and also the planning authority. Wiltshire Council stand to gain a considerable amount of money from the development.
The residents have also asked Wiltshire Council to comment on the outline planning approval granted in 1990 for the houses in what is now Rabley Wood View.
One of the conditions attached to this approval stated that the “…public open space, amenity land, and play areas, shall be retained in perpetuity for those uses and not incorporated into private garden land or other uses. Reason: To ensure that these areas are not fragmented and remain to fulfil their original functions.”
The residents have yet to receive a response from Wiltshire Council on this point.
Action for the River Kennet (ARK) has written to the planning officer stating that the revised plans have not addressed their concerns. Their main objection concerns the developers acting for the Sangster family to drain ‘a substantial area of the existing water meadow in the flood plain’.
Apart the ecological value of the water meadows, ARK believes this drainage would reduce their capacity to absorb water at times of heavy rainfall – and so increase the likelihood of flooding.
Wiltshire Council have also consulted Sport England who have now lodged an objection to the plans and have told planning officers that the development ‘will result in the loss of open space used by the community for informal sport and a football kick about area’.
Sport England have quoted the coalition government’s National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) which states categorically that ‘existing open space, sports and recreational buildings and land should not be built on unless’ – an assessment shows it is surplus to requirements or the loss ‘would be replaced by equivalent or better provision in terms of quantity and quality in a suitable location’.
They say that the current plans conflict with these stipulations of the NPPF.
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