Town council votes to reject Future Chippenham scheme

Following it’s unanimous opposition to the Wiltshire Local Plan, Chippenham Town Council voted to condemn the low-speed distributor road currently being consulted on under the Future Chippenham scheme.

At the extraordinary full council meeting, members of the public spoke passionately against the road calling into question Wiltshire Council’s dedication to addressing the climate emergency.

Route plans for the Chippenham distributor road

All present councillors, bar Peter Hutton who abstained in favour of seeking more information not included in the consultation, voted to say no to the scheme.

The response draft letter was made up of councillor comments on the road and the process as a whole.

In individual responses councillors not only panned the road options but the process of consulting on the road before housing numbers and their best locations were determined through the Local Plan Review.

“I think the responses from the councillors are very clear. I don’t think there’s any ambiguity in it. I think the responses from the public are very clear,” said Cllr James Adman.

“All three of these road options are unacceptable and I just hope that Wiltshire Council will listen.”

Cllr Jenny Budgell said when out on her daily walk she stood by a sign to indicate where the road options were, adding that it was a “powerful moment” and confirmed to her that there was no option for the road.

“Doughnutting our town with two huge suburbs and building long bridges over the river, canal and cycle track is the wrong answer to the wrong problem,” Cllr Clare told full council.

“This proposal should never have gone forward in the first place, there was a lack of transparency at the beginning and since then a huge amount of money and effort has been wasted on a project that was going nowhere.”

Chippenham Town Council

Cllr Peter Hutton said confusion was caused by running the local plan and Future Chippenham consultations side by side, adding that housing numbers, potential CIL contributions and the environmental and flooding reports needed to be disclosed to quell further confusion.

“I think it should have been in the public domain two or three years ago, and it should have been stopped in its tracks,” said Cllr Nick Murry.

“That would have saved council taxpayers and the public a considerable amount of wasted money.”

Cllr Mary Norton said: “I do not think this is anything we should have accepted in the first place, and the suggestion that we say which of the three options we prefer is ridiculous because it doesn’t give us any opportunity to say ‘we don’t want any of them’.”

Chippenham Town Council has voted to oppose all the distributor road options offered by Wiltshire Council's Future Chippenham project

— Matthew McLaughlin (@matthew_wilts) March 4, 2021

Cllr John Scragg called the consultation process a “sham” and “tick-box exercise” so Wiltshire Council could meet its statutory requirements.

The consultation into the Future Chippenham scheme is due to come to a close on Friday, March 12.