Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

...The WC Western Area Planning Committee considered it yesterday.

My proposal to refuse the application was lost on the casting vote of the chairman (five in favour, five against).

My reasoning was that Core Policy 29 of the Wiltshire Core Strategy appplied to this application.  The policy states, basically, that no greenfield housing applications on unallocated sites should be permitted until the new secondary school has been built this side of Trowbridge.

CP 29 was not mentioned in the case report and its use seemed to cause surprise to the planning officers present.

Following the defeat of my 'refuse' proposal the committee agreed to defer the application for further guidance from the spatial planning team as to the merits of CP29 regarding this application.