A combination of proposed changes to Government planning laws and Swindon Borough Council’s failure to produce a new local plan for housing could leave Wroughton at risk of merging with Swindon through unsuitable housing development.
A combination of proposed changes to Government planning laws and Swindon Borough Council’s failure to produce a new local plan for housing could leave Wroughton at risk of merging with Swindon through unsuitable housing development.
The Tory and Lib Dem Government is determined to reduce the number of planning checks and balances which have so far protected Wroughton as an individual village and community. After strong objections earlier this year to the proposals from the Campaign to Protect Rural England, the Town and Country Planning Association and the National Trust, the Government made some changes.
But there are still many concerns which have not been addressed by the Government.
Anne Snelgrove, Labour’s Parliamentary candidate said, ‘Councils like Swindon are leaving their rural communities vulnerable to greedy developers who want to build anywhere and everywhere. This is because Tory-run Swindon Borough Council has failed to produce a new Local Plan, setting out the areas where new housing is allowed.’
In the Government’s Planning Bill, called the National Planning and Policy Framework, councils without a Local Plan are vulnerable to the ‘presumption in favour of sustainable development’ otherwise known as the default yes. In other words, any developer can come along and put in a proposal to build houses, and Swindon Borough Council would have to give permission.
Anne said, ‘Labour is on your side fighting the National Planning and Policy Framework in Parliament, and locally we are challenging Swindon’s Tories to produce the Local Plan NOW. We want Wroughton to stay a village, not become a suburb of Swindon.’