IT is very important that Bradford on Avon residents turn out to vote ‘yes’, in favour of the town’s Neighbourhood Plan, in the referendum on Wednesday, September 20.
The plan, prepared by local people, contains a set of policies designed to meet the specific needs of Bradford on Avon. These policies are aimed at promoting the local economy and community wellbeing, while protecting the town against further large scale speculative development, protecting against further loss of parking and giving protection equivalent to greenbelt protection for seven green spaces in the town.
 These policies pick up the needs and sensitivities of the town in ways that the broader terms of national and county plans cannot do.
The plan is far more than just a “housing plan” (as it is described in the article in your August 18 issue, page 30). 
And, rather than providing for 64 more houses as your article suggests, the referendum version of the plan states that the “Core Strategy housing requirement at Bradford on Avon has now been met.”
The plan developed in the town has been studied by an independent examiner, as the law requires, and he has made some changes. 
“We may regret some of these changes, but they are relatively minor. The choice now before the town is between the plan as amended by the examiner and no plan.
It is wrong to suggest adoption of the plan could “open the floodgates” to developers; rather, if the town rejects the plan, and we are left reliant on national and county policies, we will be much more vulnerable to damaging speculative planning applications. Hence the importance of residents turning out to vote ‘yes’.
David Moss
Chairman, Bradford on Avon Preservation Trust