A huge welcome awaits the Crown Estate’s bid to build a model housing estate and hotel on a hill overlooking Marlborough now that the multi-million pound project has been officially revealed.
The first details of the development, already linked to the Queen’s diamond jubilee year since the Crown Estate acts for Her Majesty, are due to be discussed by the town council’s planning committee on Monday.
The scheme is for 230 houses, including affordable homes, plus a hotel with pub or restaurant and a direct link to St John’s School on a seven hectare site opposite the Marlborough Business Park, on the Salisbury Road.
But while the development has first to overcome planning hurdles – and possible controversy – once an environmental impact assessment is carried out, it is being backed by Councillor Nick Fogg, twice mayor of Marlborough.
He is one of six town councillors initially invited to view the project last year and has remained in contact since then with the Crown Estate, which has produced a 23-page report on the proposals for Wiltshire Council and the town council to consider.
“We should welcome this with open arms,” he told Marlborough News Online. “It is a splendid opportunity that we should support.”
“It provides a genuine chance to end the erosion of hotel beds in Marlborough with the loss of the Ivy House and it provides a community asset with a hotel and pub or may be a restaurant on the site.”
“This will boost the Cherry Orchard estate on the Salisbury Road and also the Business Park opposite, as well as provide access to St John’s School with an additional drop-off point.”
And he added: “The Crown Estate is an ideal developer to work with. Given its link to the Queen, it has a reputation for quality and integrity and sensitivity in working with the local community. We have nothing to fear.”
Planning committee chairman Councillor Margaret Rose (pictured) told Marlborough News Online: “People will have concerns that have to be taken into account and addressed where possible. “But I am impressed by the Crown Estate’s sensibility both in addressing the ecology of the area and the fact that Marlborough is a conservation area.
“I very much support the increase in social housing. Marlborough is a very select, desirable place to live with the result that property prices are very high and out of the reach of local people and especially first time buyers.”
However, there is likely to be concern that Marlborough already has a considerable number of new homes remaining unsold and the new estate may add to the problem, so too the number of children needing local education, the possible need for more doctors, as well the effect on traffic.
However, Councillor Fogg revealed: “Marlborough, like all towns in the country, is obliged under the last Labour government’s strategy to provide housing with a social element, whether or not the town needs it.”
“We have no choice over that. We have to follow the government’s guidance and provide housing with an element of social housing included.”
And Councillor Rose pointed out that the development, planned to start in 2014, would boost employment, especially in the building trade, as well as giving a lift to the Tesco supermarket, and enable people to walk into town and their children to walk to school.
“Tesco will be overjoyed,” she said. “It will boost their economy and jobs in general. I hope to the development will be an opportunity for us to see more creative architecture on this site and that people driving into Marlborough will like this pretty new estate on the edge of the town.”
The site too is arable agricultural land and this is why the Crown Estate is deliberately seeking a response to its plans by seeking an environmental impact assessment required in the 1990 Town and Country Planning Act.
The report before the council’s planning committee states: “A masterplan will be developed for the site in response to the constraints and opportunities and wider stakeholder and community consultation.”
“An initial development concept has been prepared however based on previous discussions with Marlborough town council and Savernake parish council that broadly comprises of up to 230 residential units, potential hotel use with pub and/or restaurant, open space, structural landscaping and planting, school drop-off to serve St John’s and pedestrian and cycle links.”
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