Trowbridge town pond masterplan consultation criticised by councillor

On Thursday, January 16, the council presented much-debated plans to transform the pond into a 'thriving wetland reserve', inviting members of the public to look at designs and offer their views.

Redevelopment of the site is a core part of the £850,000 plan to revamp Trowbridge Town Park, which will also eventually include renovation of the park’s bandstand.

The redevelopment is being planned by Wiltshire Wildlife Trust (WWT) in partnership with the council, as part of a scheme that will involve upgrading play areas, repairing the bandstand, and providing new facilities such as public toilets.

(Image: Trowbridge Town Council)

Now, Cllr Daniel Cave has criticised the town council for their engagement with the public though he said that he likes the plans proposed, he also argued that the council had not consulted residents on “what they want”.

He said: “It turns out the minimum it would be to construct the wetland area would be £350,000.

“I don’t think it’s even accurate. If you take a pond, it’ll need basic maintenance. With a wetland, you’ll have to keep it cut, you need constant maintenance. It’s not going to be cheaper.

“My main gripe is that it's the people’s park. From my understanding, people want a pond, because you’ve got to balance accessibility with nature.

“If it will have been quite a major impact in the town, it would have been important to consult with residents. But they’re just refusing to carry out public consultation.

“You had this with Doric Park, where they carried out a really haphazard consultation, and advertised it to areas that would favour the plans."

“My online consultation got 38 responses, and 76.6 per cent of those said they wanted to restore the pond. When I’ve spoken to people at their doors, they all told me they wanted the old town pond back.

“This shouldn’t shape the decision, but this should let the council know that they need to consult people on what they want.

“Transparency within the town council is abysmal. With this pond, they’ve carried out this engagement thing, but they’ve carried out a small presentation of the wetland but failed to tell the public how much it will cost or even ask what do you want?”

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Responding to Cllr Cave’s comments, Mayor of Trowbridge and chair of the town park sub committee, Cllr Stephen Cooper, said: “Cllr Cave claims that ‘residents have not been properly consulted’ but doesn’t say what such a consultation is.

“It would be interesting to know what ‘proper consultation’ has led Cllr Cave to conclude that the majority of the residents of Trowbridge want the old pond restored?

“The feedback that was received from the public engagement on the project held in January produced well over one hundred responses and the results were overwhelmingly positive.

“The accusation that the project mirrors Doric Park are false. The lessons learned from Doric, especially in the areas of project management and oversight, were hard and sometimes uncomfortable, but they have been learned.

“We’re not rushing into this project without proper governance and control. We are taking this project through a rigorous process of step-by-step appraisal, ensuring all information is verified and no assumptions are made without evidence and corroboration.

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“As for simply repairing the pond, we know this would be expensive, just how expensive is impossible to say with any accuracy without costly exploratory work being undertaken.

“Estimates lead us to believe that to restore the pond to its original state would cost well over £200,000. Then there’s the high annual maintenance costs needed in order to prevent the same issues arising again within a few years.

“The responsible approach was seen to be a reinvention of the pond as a sustainable feature (the old pond wasn’t) that opens the bottom of the park up to the River Biss, and provides an attractive, ecologically diverse (again, the old pond wasn’t) asset for the town.

“From the majority of the feedback that both the Town Council and Wiltshire Wildlife Trust have received, it appears that the residents of Trowbridge agree with us.”