The road to ruin?

10:15am Thursday 1st May 2008

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THE spectre of another 1,900 homes in Devizes in the next 20 years is haunting councillors as a consultation begins into the next district plan.

As traffic along London Road crawls to a halt during rush hours and a planning application is awaited for 244 homes on the Quakers Walk site, alarm bells are ringing among campaigners.

Wiltshire Police Authority has decided to release an area of land beside police headquarters in London Road for development, although it is not known at the moment how many new homes could be fitted on it.

A consultation document on future development in Kennet district over the next 20 years recognises the major problems of traffic congestion in Devizes.

Copies of Making Places for the Future, a leaflet outlining the options for housing and commercial development in Kennet over the next two decades, are to be delivered to all households in the district in the next week or two.

It invites comments on the questionnaire provided and the closing date for the consultation is June 16.

The consultation is for Kennet District Council to create what used to be called a district plan, but which the Government has dubbed a core strategy. It is all part of the Government's Regional Spatial Strategy.

The RSS allocates 6,000 new homes for Kennet. With those already built or in the planning process, that leaves around 1,900 houses to be found room for.

The consultation document suggests a number of options. The first suggests that Devizes is the focus for development, but adds: "The town centre has benefited from growth and the number of people living and working locally has remained high but there have been consequences in terms of increased road congestion.

"Even with remedial work to key junctions, roads could exceed their capacity if this level of growth is proposed."

County councillor Margaret Taylor said: "I can't see any more development in Devizes until something is done about the traffic in the town.

"It is high time Marlborough was seen as a centre of new development. They've got better medical facilities than us."

Coun Paula Winchcombe, district councillor for Devizes North, said: "If we have the housing we have to have the infrastructure to sustain it."

Coun Jeff Ody, district councillor for Devizes South, said: "More traffic on London Road will lead to a severe impact on the town centre. Other town centres are better equipped with road capacity but Devizes is uniquely badly served with relief roads."