WITH more than 2,000 houses planned or under construction in Melksham over the coming years, councillor Jon Hubbard has slammed the county council’s housing strategy as a catastrophic failure.

Last November the hearing into the Chippenham Site Allocation Plan was suspended by a government planning inspector asking for further evidence as the current model was unviable.

Now, according to Cllr Hubbard, developers are seeking new land for their sites, which could put considerable strain on Melksham's services and swamp its infrastructure and facilities.

Cabinet member, Toby Sturgis, who is responsible for the strategic plan, strongly denies the claims and has accused Cllr Hubbard of playing politics with the issue.

The councillor for Melksham South said: “These are catastrophic failures that could blight our communities and our landscapes for years to come.

"All these developments are happening outside of a strategic plan and it is now a free for all for developers to build where they want.

"With all these new houses how will our services cope? The traffic that this will cause is enormous. This is a huge issue.

"There are already massive traffic problems along the A350. I cannot imagine what it will be like when all these houses go in."

This year more than 700 new homes have been approved to be built in Melksham with more than 250 currently being built at the former George Ward School and several hundred more at the planning stage.

At a council meeting on Tuesday, May 10, Cllr Hubbard called a vote of no confidence against Cllr Sturgis, which was defeated by 53 to 25 votes and accused him of turning the council into a laughing stock.

“The time has come to say enough is enough, the elected politician responsible for this disastrous approach to planning should be removed from office,” he added.

“An apology should be offered to the communities across West and North Wiltshire, who are now seeing a surge in speculative planning applications and appeals, many of which are getting permission as the council cannot stop them as a result of this failure.”

Cllr Sturgis said: "I have never heard such rubbish in my life from someone who clearly knows absolutely nothing about planning.

"It was a full council decision not my own, which he himself voted for. To blame me for it when he voted for it is bizarre.

"Putting it into context the inspector has not found the plan unsound and was quite a normal procedure.

"Personally he has never been involved in planning and knows very little. Frankly, he is playing politics with planning and making statements which are not 100% true."