Councillor and former Mayor Lisa Farrell is calling residents to come to Monday’s (19th May) Planning Committee meeting of Marlborough Town Council in the Town Hall at 7pm where the McCathy & Stone Planning Application for a(nother) retirement complex to be created on the site of the former Police Station in George Lane will be the main application for discussion.
Lisa is adamant that Marlborough needs a different form of housing and looking at the application – PL/2025/03165 – many others feel exactly the same. Plenty of Marlborough residents have already registered their objections. “Marlborough needs affordable housing” she told Marlborough.news. “We need housing for families, particularly younger families and younger residents in general, and accommodation that they can afford.” she added.
This isn’t something new. The Marlborough Area Neighbourhood Plan examined the housing needs of Marlborough in detail and the conclusion was that the priority housing need in Marlborough was not retirement developments for older residents. It was accommodation for the younger members of the community, those who can (and do) work in the town. And those who want to make Marlborough their home, and who will, in time, become the mainstays of the community. Marlborough needs affordable or social housing, accommodation that this important group within the town’s population can afford.
Then there is the issue of parking. Were this development to go ahead, what would be the effect on other nearby residents of George Lane and Culvermead Close who need spaces on the road to park? Ouch! Suddenly this may become very difficult……
Monday’s Planning Committee Meeting will be in the Town Hall, starting at 7pm. Click here to access the agenda for the meeting, then go to Item 7(a) on p16 where this application is first on the list. The Town Council has already raised objection to this site becoming yet another retirement complex, last year when this was initially raised as a possibility and McCarthy & Stone presented their project to the Town Council.
Cllr Farrell implores everyone who has reservations about this proposed development to submit their concerns to Wiltshire Council, on to the application itself. And also to turn up on Monday evening to hear the discussion. Whilst Marlborough Town council do not have the actual authority to reject this application – that is ultimately the decision of the ‘East’ Planning Committee of Wiltshire Council – that body will take note of the strength of feeling locally, here in Marlborough, and the louder the ‘shout’, the more difficult it will be for the Committee and the Planning Officers of the Council to turn a deaf ear.
“Please come, please turn up, please register your comments on the Planning website” pleaded Cllr Farrell. “Give the town and residents the housing that Marlborough needs…”
Three Hens in a Boat at The Watermill
