Row over developer’s plans to build 'overbearing' home in Hilperton

Craig and Kerry Stone, who are the directors of Stone Developments Ltd, want to build a three-storey house with a two-storey triple garage with a home office above in Ashton Road, Hilperton.

Their plans would infill a greenfield space between the village and Paxcroft Mead on the edge of Trowbridge.

The planning application site is marked in red on this map. (Image: Wiltshire Council)

The couple have just sold their existing four-bedroom home for £675,000, subject to contract, in anticipation of being able to build a new home for themselves in the village.

Mr Stone declined to comment on the plans, saying the situation had “got very messy and nasty” and that anything he said would be used against him.

Wiltshire Council’s western area planning committee, which meets on Wednesday (September 27), is being recommended to give delegated authority to the Head of Development Management to grant planning permission, subject to Natural England ecological and Section 106 conditions being met.

Wiltshire Council received 32 representations, 29 being objections from 10 people, and three letters in support, as well as a petition in support signed by 11 people. Hilperton Parish Council also objected to the couple’s planning application.

They say the site is next to the conservation area, is in the Trowbridge Bat Migration yellow zone, and is a key greenfield habitat between Hilperton and the Paxcroft Mead estate.

The figure shows the likely route for Bechstein’s bats commuting from Green Lane Wood (purple arrows) and extent of eastern boundary hedgerow (red arrows) in relation to the application site (red arrow). (Image: Wiltshire Council)

They include three close neighbours, James Latch, Alex Moss and Andrew Cresci, who say their homes would be overlooked by the proposed development, resulting in a loss of privacy.

Mr Cresci, of Hilperton Grange, says the proposed development site is completely “out of scale” to other homes in the area, and would overlook his main bedroom, garden and patio. 

Mr Moss said the sheer size of the house proposed would be “overbearing” at over 30 feet high and its adjacent triple garage at 22 feet high would be almost a two-storey house in its own right.

The house proposed would be taller than these trees if the planning application is approved. Photo: Trevor Porter 70163-5 (Image: Trevor Porter)He said: “The development would remove any garden privacy, block direct sunlight into our rear-facing rooms and see huge swathes of shadow cast over our garden and productive fruit and vegetable plots.”

Three previous planning applications to build on the land have been refused and the plot is outside Hilperton's Neighbourhood Development Plan developed in conjunction with Wiltshire Council.

“Multiple prior planning applications have been refused in the past, even on appeal, for the reasons it will impact Hilperton's conservation area and because it breaks the natural green belt that separates and protects the old Hilperton village,” Mr Cresci said.

Cllr Ernie Clark, chairman of Hilperton Parish Council, ‘called in’ the couple’s plans, and the council says their proposal is outside village policy limits/settlement boundaries and the land is not allocated for housing in the Neighbourhood Development Plan.

But Wiltshire Council says Mr and Mrs Stone’s plans would help to reduce the housing shortfall in Wiltshire which, it says, is an “important material consideration”.

It adds: “In terms of neutral impacts, the proposed development would not cause harm to neighbouring residential properties or the amenities of the new owners/occupiers, and the visual impacts of the proposed dwelling can be adequately mitigated by conditions.

“The development would result in no adverse impact to local biodiversity, protected species or protected habitats.

But Mr Cresci said: “There is an ecological link between the conservation area and the longstanding green strip across southern Hilperton.

“It’s not hard to deduce that putting a large building in the middle of this green strip will damage wildlife across the south of our village.

“What’s the point of Wiltshire Council talking about protecting our villages and our ecology if construction is allowed to bridge green geographic boundaries and settlements?”