Councillors ask if Devizes can cope (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)
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Fears raised as another 700 homes expected
1:00pm Sunday 1st July 2012 in News By Lewis Cowen
Traffic in London Road, Devizes, near the Quakers Walk development
Devizes will have to find space for another 700 homes despite local councillors insisting the town doesn’t have the infrastructure to cope.
And there may be many more as Wiltshire Council lacks the financial muscle to fight unwanted planning applications, it was claimed on Tuesday.
Wiltshire Council’s full council meeting in Devizes Corn Exchange officially approved the Core Strategy, formerly known as the local plan, which will cover development in the county until 2026. Under the strategy, there must be a minimum of 2,150 new houses built in the Devizes community area, 1,730 of them in Devizes itself. With 1,070 already completed, it leaves 640 to place.
But, as Coun Jeff Ody told his fellow councillors, recent events have shown that Wiltshire Council is powerless to prevent even more being built. He said: “There is great doubt that Wiltshire Council has the financial capability to fight planning applications.”
Recently, Wiltshire Council’s eastern area planning committee decided not to offer any evidence to a public inquiry hearing an appeal brought by the St Monica Trust against councillors’ refusal of permission for a care village at Quakers Walk after council officers told them it could cost £100,000 if they lost the appeal.
The committee also approved a 37-unit retirement complex at Devizes Wharf for McCarthy & Stone after hearing how expensive a successful appeal against refusal might be.
Coun Ody said: “Standards of medical support in Devizes have been neglected but they are not considered as planning matters. Doctors services in Devizes are simply inadequate.”
Coun Laura Mayes, who also spoke at Tuesday’s meeting, is concerned about the continuing traffic congestion, especially along the London Road corridor of her Roundway ward.
She said: “I have a continuing concern about how we improve the infrastructure in Devizes, but now we have a transport strategy committee which will hopefully start to work this out.”
Comments(3)
moonraker77
says...
9:00pm Sun 1 Jul 12
eddiedevizes
says...
5:19pm Mon 2 Jul 12
It's virtually impossible to park in the town centre now, more and more shops are closing, there must be at least 5 or 6 in the Brittox now with the recent closure of Millers, Devizes will end up like Calne, full of houses, nowhere to park, and nowhere to go shopping unless you want groceries.
moonraker77 says...
8:45pm Sun 1 Jul 12
evizes.info/newsarch
ive.html: Tony Sedgwick, the Devizes Trust Traffic Advisor and Dr Alan Cowley, a Trust member and retired Medical Academic met with Maggie Ray, Director of Public Health to express their grave concern at the damage being done to people’s health by traffic pollution.
There was broad agreement that the matter needed to be tackled, although the Trust’s request for people to be informed of the damage pollution brings about was not accepted on the ground that it could cause alarm. We wait to see what action our Council take to address this issue.
There is an obvious possibility that increased housing without more jobs will mean that more people will need to travel through and out of the town to find work.
There will be a point where if proven that pollution caused damage to a person's health someone will be liable in law. Not to mention increased demands on medical resources.
It's likely that the council are currently on average managing to side-step EU pollution regulations but that wont last forever. I doubt if is even in their core strategy.
But most of us being powerless to change the situation, have given up and are trying to live with it.
There are worse places to live I suppose.