Planning application 20/00379/OUT
Planning application 20/00379/OUT for site H2.6 at Southwick Court has been resubmitted. There will be a further period of public consultation and comments are invited until Sunday 14th March 2021.
The plan in detail in three overlapping parts, taken from plans submitted by Aspect Tree Consultancy.
The re-submission includes a lot of new documentation that we are still sifting through. Of course, Engain’s much improved and updated Ecology Report is of particular interest, and on page 20, it does, at least, give Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve’s exceptional biodiversity its due.
Our overall view of the the developments proposed for the WHSAP sites at H2.4, H2.5 and H2.6 (marked on the map below) is that all three plan for a density of housing that [1] will change the function of the nationally important bat flight corridor between the woodlands to the east of Trowbridge and SCP Nature Reserve, and [2] from which it will be impossible to protect Lambrok Stream’s biodiversity and function as a wildlife corridor, no matter what mitigations are planned.
Map showing the three sites proposed for development between Trowbridge and Southwick
The resubmission’s documentation is dense, repetitive, and laden with the sort of words that have to be Googled – and comes at a time when anybody concerned for the future of the greenspace between Trowbridge and Southwick is still wading their way through the hundreds of pages of the Local Plan Review consultation. Bear with us; it may take us a while to get to grips with it all.
If you can, please spend some time going over this resubmission. In principle, these three sites have already been put forward by the county in the Wiltshire Housing Site Allocation Plan and we can do little to to prevent their development. But we can still influence how the sites will be developed and how the developers mitigate against damaging SCP Nature Reserve’s and Lambrok Stream’s biodiversities, and the flight corridors that our rare and internationally protected bats use.
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 