IN your excellent piece last week on Redrow’s proposed Burlington Grange development in Corsham, two things struck us as requiring comment.
First, Coun Trotman’s contention that the planning committee was ‘looking at the placement of houses’ and can’t ‘refuse something when we don’t have the expertise’.
The point we made at the planning committee, and which 
members chose to ignore, is that much of the expertise is contained in the engineering geological report we had commissioned and had presented to the council (both to the council officers and personally, by email, to Coun Trotman) in early June. 
That report draws attention to the propensity of undermined land to collapse should the mine ceiling be less than 17 metres below ground level and suggests that the placement of houses on the site could not be determined until extensive site stability tests had been carried out. 
No such tests have been carried out, either by Redrow or the council.
Second, Redrow’s comments that they are committed to ‘building quality and much needed homes in Corsham’. 
As Coun Hopkinson pointed out at the planning meeting, Corsham has well exceeded its planning target for new homes and doesn’t actually need any more.
DAVID TAYLOR
Chairman
Pickwick Association