IN the wake of a decision to uphold Kennet District Council's plans for most new housing to be built in Devizes, JILL CROOKS looks at the Local Plan in detail and asks how it will affect the region's homebuyers

A Government planning inspector has upheld Kennet District Council's plans to locate the majority of new housing in Devizes.

A 38-day inquiry was held last year into objections to the replacement Kennet District Local Plan, which allocated that 7,107 homes should be built in the area before 2011, with 2,263 of the new buildings in Devizes.

Two of the biggest sites allowed for housing are Quakers Walk, Devizes where 230 homes were agreed, and Chopping Knife Lane, Marlborough where the inspector agreed with the council that 150 houses should be built on St John's School lower school site paving the way for the school to be on one site.

Many of those who objected said Devizes could not cope with the extra amount of houses proposed and argued that they should be spread out across the district.

But the inquiry inspector, Robin Muers, agreed with the council's approach.

Mr Muers, in his report, said: "I can understand that there may be anxiety about strain on local services in Devizes, arising from the additional housing.

"However, in relation to the size of the existing population, the increase in the number of residents caused by local plan allocations would be relatively modest and would be spread over a period of years."

Mr Muers said there was a lack of housing sites in Marlborough because of environmental constraints and building substantial numbers of houses in villages would not be sustainable as it would increase car journeys, particularly for workers.

Kennet District Council was one of the first local authorities to introduce a requirement for 50 per cent of new housing developments to be affordable housing. The inspector has upheld this requirement and the council hopes this will help people on low incomes get onto the property ladder.

Ed White, the officer in charge of putting together the Local Plan, said: "The council has always been keen on promoting affordable housing. The council's previous policy was for 30 per cent of new housing to be affordable housing but as we started preparing this Local Plan the Government's Rural White Paper came out, which stated that local authorities could seek developers to provide 50 per cent of affordable housing in new housing.

"So we decided to include this in the replacement Local Plan."

The inspector has agreed that a total of 1,575 affordable homes should be built by 2011.

About 30 per cent of these will be low cost housing for rent provided by a housing association and the remainder will be low cost houses for sale which could cost 20 per cent less than the rest of the houses in a development.

The council is preparing guidance on affordable housing policies and will be consulting with local people, housing associations and builders in the summer.

The inspector's report will be considered by Kennet councillors in the autumn.

Proposed changes to the Local Plan by the inspector will need to be published as modifications and there will a six-week period during which the public can make objections or representations.

Councillors can consider whether to reject any recommendations by the inspector. Any objections would also form part of the modifications consultation.

The council aims to adopt the Local Plan by April 2004. Then the process begins again with the preparation of the next Local Plan, although it will be called Local Development Framework.

The key decisions

LAND behind Focus DIY, London Road, Devizes:

The inspector agreed to a request from the owners of the land, Devizes-based Gaiger Brothers, that the site should be re-allocated for housing.

The inquiry heard that the 4.3-hectare site had not attracted any interest from businesses for the past 15 years.

The council had wanted to keep the site in the replacement Local Plan for businesses to build on.

However, the inspector said about 100 houses could be built on three hectares and the remaining area kept for business use.

LAND at Horton Road, Devizes:

The inspector rejected a bid by developers Berkeley Strategic Land Ltd that the former Ministry of Defence land next to the former police skid pan site should be allocated for businesses to build on.

The developers had said the 7.3 hectare greenfield site was needed as employment land.

FORMER Pewsey Hospital site:

The inspector agreed with the council that about 110 houses should be built during the second phase of building on the former hospital site.

Developers had argued against the council's requirement for affordable housing on the site.

They had said at the inquiry that there was already a considerable amount of social housing on adjacent sites and felt that there would be too much if the requirement was upheld for this site.

The inspector rejected this argument, saying there would not be an excessively large amount of social housing.

He said that there should be about 33 houses provided for rent and about 22 provided as low cost housing.