Planners urged to reject development due to flood fears
Malmesbury Town Council is urging planners to throw out two applications to build almost 100 new homes in the town, amid fears of flooding and concerns about development on a beauty spot.
This week (Tuesday 13th) the Town Council’s planning committee agreed to ask Wiltshire Council to reject plans by Lagan Homes and White Lion Land Limited to build 42 homes on land off Park Road, due to concerns about flooding.
The committee also objected to plans by Hollins Strategic Land for outline permission for a development of 55 homes on land beside Sherston Road, which is within the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
Cllr James Slade, Malmesbury Town Council’s planning committee chair, said the council and local residents were concerned about flooding at the Park Road site.
“We have commissioned expert advice on this to support our argument that the area is a flood risk,” said Cllr Slade. “There is understandably a lot of public concern about the development, with the Environment Agency confirming the area carries a risk of flooding.
“While the developers mention having a rainwater storage plan, the streams and waterways in the immediate vicinity are already dealing with increased runoff due to existing development – we have concerns about any addition to this.”
Cllr Slade said the Park Road and Sherston Road applications both fall outside Malmesbury’s Neighbourhood Plan and the town has already exceeded is allocation for planned new housing development.
“The proposed Sherston Road site is not only within the AONB, but would also extend the agreed town boundary, again falling foul of our Neighbourhood Plan and potentially planning policy. As a matter of course we are concerned that the developer has also failed to include provision for any solar or EV charging facilities.”
Wiltshire Council is due to discuss the Park Road development on August 20. Malmesbury Town Council have asked the town’s Wiltshire councillor, Gavin Grant, to have the Sherston Road application ‘called in’. This means the application will follow a Wiltshire Council planning committee hearing, appeal and/or judicial appeal process.