Lambrok at Risk

by David Feather

Unfortunately, what is clear about the proposed development at H2.6 and the other two proposed housing sites (here and here) in the South of Trowbridge Community Area is that the original studies done for the Wiltshire Housing Site Allocation Plan (WHSAP) proposals were woefully inadequate. Now Wiltshire Council is involved in a poorly evidenced defence of the selection of this site and others in the area, and the developers are taking full advantage of this fact.

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February 22, 2021

Mail from Southwick Court

by Simon Tesler

As you will have seen, revised plans have been submitted by developers for the proposed 180-house estate on the land between Southwick Court and Trowbridge’s southern edge (known as H2.6).

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February 15, 2021

Southwick Court development

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.

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February 14, 2021

Planning application 20/09659/FUL

Newland Homes have applied to build 50 houses on WHSAP site H2.5 at Upper Studley.

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December 13, 2020

Protecting the park

At the end of 2020, the protection afforded to the UK’s wildlife by the UK Post 2010 Biodiversity Framework will end. The Environment Bill 2020 does not make clear exactly what will replace it.

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October 20, 2020

Wild belt land

The Wildlife Trusts has stepped into the controversy surrounding the government’s proposed changes to planning regulations; they have concluded that the changes will damage nature, increase air pollution and leave local people with no say on protecting urban wildlife corridors.

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October 9, 2020

A missed opportunity?

More about planning application 18/10035/OUT

Wiltshire Council must not miss this opportunity to lead the way in developing a local Nature Recovery Network around Trowbridge.

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October 4, 2020

Planning Application 18/10035/OUT

Riparian strip

We have been struggling to make sense of planning application 18/10035/OUT, RPS’s proposal to build 55 houses on the fields between the park and Church Lane, and therefore we have not yet submitted our response. This is the problem.

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September 29, 2020

WHSAP Recap

It’s time to review the progress of the planning applications to build houses on the three allocated sites next to Lambrok Stream.

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August 23, 2020

The Environment Bill 2020

The Environment Bill was submitted to Parliament in January, with the intention that it be enacted before the year is out; at the moment, it is somewhere in a post-lockdown legislative logjam while Parliament works out how to do its job safely in its famously loud and crowded chamber.

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August 11, 2020

Development at H2.5

Newland Homes has published a concept plan for the building of up to 45 houses on the land at Upper Studley (WHSAP site H2.5) just diagonally across the road from the park. They have distributed a leaflet to 170 local addresses as their first step in the process of public consultation.

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20/00379/OUT public consultation extended

The public consultation on planning application 20/00379/OUT has been extended.

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February 21, 2020

More on Application 20/00379/OUT

Ecology survey and assessment report

Planning application 20/00379/OUT’s Ecology Survey and Assessment Report has been arbitrarily divided into six separate documents. This makes it very difficult to read, particularly as the contents page is in the first document and thereafter there are no page numbers. Stick at it, though; we have found it as interesting for its omissions as it is for its findings

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February 9, 2020

A post from Southwick Court

Simon Tesler writes:

I’m the owner of the historic II* listed property of Southwick Court itself.

February 2, 2020

Inspector’s report on WHSAP

The button below will take you to Wiltshire Council’s Planning Policy page; the first item on the page is Wiltshire Housing Site Allocation Plan – Inspector’s report. There are two documents: Inspector’s Report and Appendix 1 – Schedule of Main Modifications.

Inspectors report on WHSAP

January 28, 2020

Comment on 20/00379/OUT.

How to comment on a planning application

Yesterday, more than a thousand people read our posts about planning application 20/00379/OUT.

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January 27, 2020

20/00379/OUT: access road

Above is a map of the approximate route of the access road to and from the 180 houses that Waddeton Park Ltd has applied for permission to build in the fields to the north east of Southwick Court. (Planning Application 20/00379/OUT)

This deserves a closer look

January 26, 2020

Planning Application 20/00379/OUT

Waddeton Park Ltd have applied for outline planning permission for the building of “approximately 180 residential dwellings” on the green fields at Southwick Court, between Southwick village and the southern edge of Trowbridge.

Click here for all the application documents

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January 25, 2020

Surviving the floodwaters

We have just endured a spell of exceptionally wet weather that has been hard work for both people and wildlife.

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October 19, 2019

Planning for our bats

WHSAP has allocated six housing sites in Trowbridge.

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October 4, 2019

Death by acronym!

As required by NPPF 2019, WC has made FMMs to WHSAP to include policy statements for the sites at H2.4, H2.5 and H2.6 which take full account of the TBMS and the BoA SAC.

What does any of this mean? Click here:

October 1, 2019

Local Amenity Feature

More about WHSAP’s Further Main Modifications

On page 20 of the Schedule of Further Main Modifications (which you can find on the WHSAP Examination page, under Consultation Documents), FMM 25 proposes that at the Church Lane site, H2.4:

[t]he Lambrok Stream should be enhanced as a local amenity feature of the site in conjunction with development proposed at Southwick Court and Upper Studley

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September 18, 2019

Planning for our water voles

At last! Wiltshire Council has added the requirement that the WHSAP sites bordering Lambrok Stream at Church Lane (H2.4), Upper Studley (H2.5) and Southwick Court (H2.6), should be treated as a single ecological unit.

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September 16, 2019

Main Modifications to WHSAP

Yesterday, Wiltshire Council published A Schedule of Further Main Modifications to its Housing Site Allocation Plan (WHSAP).

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September 12, 2019

The Wiltshire Housing Plan and Church Lane.

By David Feather

If anyone is wondering about the Wiltshire Housing Plan and its proposals for the area off Church Lane, it seems that you will have to keep on wondering for some time more. We have not forgotten about it and are watching “progress”. The wheels of bureaucracy grind on very slowly but hopefully this will be of advantage to those of us who love Southwick Country Park. We need to ensure that the planners get it right.

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August 24, 2019