Sirs,
I was pleased to read about the Town Council’s strong letter to Wiltshire Council about the latter’s sale of amenity land off Rabley Wood View for a housing development.
The substitution of this play area – which buyers of nearby houses were told would remain as a public open space ‘in perpetuity’ – with land on the nearby water meadow seems particularly inappropriate.
In her recent speech on the environment (January 11), the Prime Minister said:
“To make more land available for the homes our country needs, while at the same time creating new habitats for wildlife, we will embed the principle of ‘net environmental gain’ for development, including housing and infrastructure”.
Would the members of the Wiltshire Council ‘cabinet’ who meet next Tuesday (January 30) to decide on the sale of this amenity land, please explain how draining a piece of all too rare water meadow provides a ‘net environmental gain’.
Jenny Noble
Marlborough