Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

More housing for West Wiltshire.
West Wiltshire District Council has welcomed changes to the new Regional Spatial Strategy, which will be replacing both regional planning guidance and county structure plans.

The authority had lobbied the South West Regional Assembly to recognise the importance of market towns and to share housing allocation across the region, rather than just focusing on the large towns and cities.

Options put forward for consultation in late 2004 suggested that future development would be concentrated in these ‘principal urban areas’.

Within the new strategy is a requirement for 550 new homes to be built in West Wiltshire every year from 2006 to 2016, dropping to 500 per year until 2026. The original option was for this requirement to be 355 per year.

Planning policy and conservation manager Mark Russell said: “We were concerned that the original option was too low, given our high level of existing commitments and the way the district is expected to develop over the coming years. The new, phased approach will still provide less homes than are currently being built each year, but hopefully we will be able to adjust to that level fairly easily."

Although the draft strategy has now been referred to the Government and is likely to go through public inquiry within the next year, some issues remain for West Wiltshire.