Avon and Marden building plans
The proposed Chippenham development with its 7500 new houses and associated 12000 additional cars will be impacting on the Marden valley and our lifestyle in general. It has been put forward undermining the Local Plan, without public consultation and will have a huge detrimental impact on the environment.
Sign the petition:
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-urban-sprawl-and-destruction-of-wiltshire-countryside?share=1e3daa92-b8d1-4fd3-afe3-cb0aec38458e&source=email-share-button&utm_medium=socialshare&utm_source=email
This is what Chippenham councillor Dr. Nick Murry says:
· Wiltshire Council has (provisionally) obtained Govt. HIF money to pay for a £75m road and open up a massive area of the beautiful Avon and Marden valley (East of Chippenham) to build on;
· Wiltshire Council’s administration did this without public consultation or engagement with surrounding parishes, and without bringing it to a Council meeting;
· Inexplicably, Chippenham ‘Town Council’ sent a letter of support (needed for Wiltshire Council’s bid) several months before the matter was brought to a Town Council meeting or discussed with Chippenham councillors;
· Misleading (and subsequently unevidenced) claims of less congestion and future investment in the town centre were made by the Wiltshire Council administration in an attempt to ward off objections;
· This was all done outside of the existing Local Plan (which the proposals contravene) and outside the Local Plan Review process, which was considering substantially less development and potentially different strategic sites;
· Wiltshire Council’s Cabinet is gambling further public money – over £5m – trying to rush a road planning application through, ahead of the upcoming Local Plan Review (which it is delaying unnecessarily to allow for);
· The Cabinet’s whole approach has not only been underhand but is based on a completely unsustainable model of development – destroying valuable natural assets, river valleys and valuable farmland (including county farms), to turn Chippenham into a huge commuter town with more congestion, air pollution and carbon emissions, increased risk of future flooding and a worse place to live/ quality of life for its residents;
· This now needs a strong public response to make the Wiltshire Council leadership think again.
So do sign the petition
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-urban-sprawl-and-destruction-of-wiltshire-countryside?share=1e3daa92-b8d1-4fd3-afe3-cb0aec38458e&source=email-share-button&utm_medium=socialshare&utm_source=email