A quick update on Widham Farm. Wiltshire Council has effectively decided that it cannot defeat the appeal because of the new Government’s stridency on housing policy and planning. The lowered housing land supply figure from the last government of about 4.2 years, is no longer tenable and so we are back to nearer the five-year housing land supply which Wiltshire still does not have. So, Wiltshire Council has decided that they are not going to spend (taxpayers) money on a barrister for an appeal that they do not believe they have any chance of winning. They are not defending their earlier decision to refuse.
Also, the Planning Inspectorate hearing has gone from a 4-day hearing to a one-day hearing which is basically just to hear the third parties, people such as the parish council, Councillor Jacqui Lay, me and any others argue the point. The Inspectorate can then say that third parties had space to speak. But with the downsizing of the hearing from four days to one day it is clear that the decision has pretty much already been made that the appeal will be substantiated.
Having said that, I am still going to go to Chippenham on 30 October to make my points (and those that I have heard over the years from you) because it is not over until it is over, and because it is the right thing to do.
