Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

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Wiltshire Council news from Ernie Clark. Your Independent councillor for Hilperton.

The consultation period has now opened for two important Wiltshire Council documents. One relates to waste disposal, the other to where housing will be built during the next fifteen years or so.

The waste disposal one seems quite innocuous for Hilperton apart from one clause. The existing re-cycling centre at Canal Road is listed as a local, as against strategic, site. So far, so good. However, tucked away on page 77 under the heading ‘Traffic and transportation’ the document states ‘Access for HGVs should be restricted to the north through signing and routing agreements to avoid passing through the built up area of Trowbridge.’

Think about that for a moment. If WC thinks that Trowbridge is too precious to have HGVs passing through the town, what is the alternative route? So far as I can see there is only one – through Hilperton!

The planning document is referred to as the Wiltshire Core Strategy. It runs to 173 pages but you will be lucky if you can get WC to let you have one. If you want a copy to borrow, both I and the parish council have one.

For Hilperton, I would suggest that there are two main areas of interest. The first is that the Trowbridge area has been identified as needing another 6,000 houses for the period 2006-2026. Of these, nearly 3,000 are either already built or are on specific permitted sites; therefore room for another 3,000 houses has to be found.

The plan is suggesting that nearly all of these (2,650) should be built on the ‘Ashton Park Urban Extension’ which will run either side of West Ashton Road. 40% of the new houses would be affordable housing.

Whilst this takes the pressure off of Hilperton for the life of the plan, do you feel that the area needs this many new houses?

However, it is not all good news for Hilperton. Elsewhere in the document there are mixed messages. Section 4.11 states that ‘Development at Large Villages will predominantly take place within existing settlement boundaries and take the form of small housing and employment sites.’ Section 4.15 goes on to say that ‘Large Village settlement boundaries, as defined by former District Local plans, will be retained’ i.e. Village Policy Limits, such as the one that Hilperton has, will remain.

However, when one refers to the map of the Trowbridge area (page 54), only three Large Villages are listed. North Bradley, Southwick and West Ashton. Hilperton has, quite literally, disappeared off the face of the Earth. We seem to have been subsumed into Trowbridge. If we are not listed as a Large Village, presumably we won’t be afforded the ‘protection’ quoted in 4.11 and 4.15.

I took this issue up with the WC planners after the previous draft document went out for consultation and was assured that my comments would be addressed for this new document. They patently haven’t been.

The planners claim that a section of policy 5.3.3 ‘protects’ Hilperton. This states ‘It is recognised that the historic core of Hilperton has a separate and distinct identity as a village. In order to reflect the importance of maintaining the character and identity of Hilperton as a village community, proposals that would lead to coalescence with the urban area of Trowbridge should not be supported. In order to achieve this aim, support will be maintained for a clearly delineated and defensible green space, designed to ensure the historic core of Hilperton is not compromised by wider development pressure within the urban area of Trowbridge.’

If the planners at WC genuinely want to protect Hilperton from becoming part of Greater Trowbridge, why not simply recognise us as a Large Village and thus give us the protection of our existing Village Policy Limit?

There will be an exhibition of the proposals between 2.00 and 8.00 on Wednesday 13th July at Bridge House.

You can let WC have your comments by either entering your comments online at http://consult.wiltshire.gov.uk/portal

Or you can write to them at Spatial Planning Team, Wiltshire Council, County Hall, Bythesea Road, Trowbridge, Wiltshire BA14 8JN.

The closing date for comments is 5.00pm on the 8th August.

I’m sorry if I have droned on this month, but I feel that these issues are important enough to warrant a longer than usual ‘update’!!