A short while ago, I mentioned the debacle at Moredon Bridge: a developer having obtained permission to build 200 houses on appeal and with a specific veto by the Planning Inspector on developing a nearby field (Bradley’s Meadow) has now returned for more.
Despite the Planning Inspector clearly stating that Bradley’s Meadow is not to be developed (because it is a Site of Nature Conservation Interest, an SNCI) the developers have put in an application for fifty more houses. Sadly Wiltshire Council are accomplices in this tragedy and began to negotiate with the developers to create a habitat equivalent to Bradley’s Meadow somewhere else. The developers are not daft. They have offered Wiltshire Council some money to do this but Wiltshire Council do not want to this and want the developers to get their hands dirty and do it. There is a simple reason for this reluctance on both sides. Creating habitat equivalent to an SNCI is not something that is achieved easily. This “offsetting”, as it is called, is very much in its infancy and whether or not it is even do-able is hotly debated, scientifically, let alone whether it should be a possibility in the first place.
Consequently Wiltshire Council, because they cannot obtain agreement with the developers, have not yet given permission for the fifty houses. Time has run out and the developers have lodged an Appeal for non-determination of their application.
So, it is time to write to the Inspector and say, loudly, that these fifty houses are not needed. We have, after all, 700 houses being built at Ridgeway Farm which is just down the road from Bradley’s Meadow, not to mention nearby Tadpole Lane.
Write to Jennifer Saunders (or email: Jennifer.saunders@pins.gsi.gov.uk) Room 3/19A, Temple Quay House, 2 The Square, Temple Quay, Bristol BS1 6PN quoting reference number APP/Y3940/A/13/2206539 concerning Ref 11/02763/FUL – Site at Land At Moredon Bridge, Purton Road, Swindon for 50 Dwellings, Access, Associated Works and Landscaping.
This should be done before 2 January 2014. Comments could include:
- Neither the emerging Wiltshire Core Strategy nor the Swindon Core Strategy call for more houses in this location, given Tadpole Farm and Ridgeway Farm housing permissions;
- The Inspector at the recent Widham Farm Appeal stated categorically that North Wiltshire has more than a five-year housing land supply;
- The Inspector at the Moredon Bridge Appeal stated categorically that the Site of Nature Conservation Interest known as Bradley’s Meadow should be protected from housing development; and
- The proposed ecological offset is an unproven technique that is still undergoing trials and consultation by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
