HAVE the planners at Wiltshire Council taken leave of their senses? (Please don’t answer that!) Once again the Hilperton Gap is under threat on the grounds that developers are bleating they cannot meet the planned development for Leap Gate by 2026 – so they will have to build on all the green field sites bordering the Trowbridge town boundary.
Sceptics may ask why the beleaguered (former Bowyers) site, near the Town Bridge, cannot be used for housing? Perhaps its £5m negative equity is the answer?
After all, developers expect to be richly rewarded for ‘helping’ local communities to achieve housing targets. They will argue they contribute by providing schools and other amenities for the areas in which they build, and planning approval is subject to various conditions imposed by the local authority. So who will pay to decontaminate a heavily polluted site?
It’s a pity that many of these alleged ‘conditions’ are more honoured in the breach than in the observance. Elizabeth Way (the Hilperton relief road) is a prime example, so residents of Hilperton Marsh in particular have every reason to feel peeved. Since many of the so-called conditions have yet to be achieved, some two years after the road was first opened, on what basis can they expect similar conditions to be respected should the Gap be developed? Take, for example, the promised speed limit of 40mph on this one-mile stretch which crosses a bridle path and cuts through an area inhabited by many species of flora and fauna. No sooner was the road completed than the speed limit was arbitrarily raised to 50mph – an increase of 25 per cent. Noise was another issue – yet to be resolved.
Perhaps Cllr Toby Sturgis (Wiltshire Council’s Cabinet Member for Spatial Planning, Development Management and Property) would care to comment from the rural tranquility of his home at Park Farm, Dauntsey Park, near Chippenham? After all, I’m sure he would appreciate the value of open, green space as a contributor to quality of life.
Wiltshire Council simply does not do its homework. Take the new holiday park development on the (until recently) beautiful Country Park at Brokerswood – planning consent for which was surreptitiously slipped through during the 2016 summer break. 
It is claimed there is suitable road access from the Southwick end. Really? This is a narrow, winding lane, much of which is single track with passing places, and is also routinely used by many vehicles as a rat-run between Southwick and the A36. 
Imagine the impact that hoards of grockles will have on this tiny hamlet as they converge on the 90 holiday lodges now being offered for sale. The whole project shrieks of the arrogance of the planners. The lodges themselves are unsightly and crammed far too closely together. You’ve heard of stretch limousines? Well, these are like stretched garden sheds. I thought, at the very least, they would resemble authentic log cabins.
So there you have it. You have until September 22 to object to the draft Housing Site Allocations Plan that places the Hilperton Gap under threat of destructive development once again. Because this is a formal consultation, the grounds on which you can object are tighter than before and you can only object to the ‘soundness’ of the plan. The Hilperton Gap Action Group will be publishing reasons why this plan is totally unsound, with suggestions on how you can effectively object to these proposals, via the Save The Hilperton Gap Facebook page.
Mary Tapping
Horse Road
Hilperton Marsh