Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

The 'Issues & Options' consultation results will be looked at.
The next stage in the process of allocating land for 12,300 new homes in West Wiltshire upto 2026 (of which 6,000 will be in the Trowbridge area) occurs tomorrow. The district council cabinet is being recommended to note the results of the consultation carried out earlier this year, and to ask officers to draw up a scheme of land allocation to be presented to the (Conservative dominated) Interim Executive at Wiltshire County Council.

The large number of responses against proposals to build north of Hilperton or in the Hilperton Gap is noted in the report to be presented to cabinet, but no decision is made to remove the Gap from the list of possible sites despite the strong opposition of the parish council and several hundred residents.

The Conservative WCC has long seen sites in the Hilperton Gap as 'Priority 1', or most likely sites for development, despite the high level of objection received recently from local residents on both sides of the Gap. All individual sites will have to go through the normal planning procedure, though there is uncertainty about the way the process of deciding which sites should be allocated for housing will happen following the demise of the districts next April.

More information can be found using this link.

What is not noted in the 'linked' report is the fact that Hilperton Parish Council has queried the accuracy of the contents and both myself and Trevor Carbin have pointed out a number of errors and assumptions. My personal view is that the study is not worth the paper it is written on, but that won't stop 'the powers that be' from assuming it to be accurate. In fact, when I first read it I thought it was a 'sales pitch' by local land owners ...

For my original piece on this click here