Successful appeal on new builds (From This Is Wiltshire)

Two developers who plan to build more than 350 new homes in Calne have won an appeal against refusal of planning permission.

Hills Group has applied to build 200 homes on land off Oxford Road.

And C G Fry & Son Limited want to build 154 new houses at Silver Street and White Horse Way, on land owned by Lord Lansdowne.

Wiltshire Council rejected the plans earlier this year, but planning inspector John Papworth said this week that the proposals were in line with the framework on the presumption in favour of sustainable development.

Each of the developments were at first turned down for similar reasons, primarily that they did not fit into the Wiltshire Core Strategy or the neighbourhood plan, which are blueprints for planning in the area.

The inspector said in his report that: “There is no adverse impact that significantly and demonstrably outweighs the benefits of providing housing and in particular affordable housing.”

Coun Emma Holton said she felt the plans to build on Lord Lansdowne’s land could be very positive for the town.

“Both of these housing applications have been running simultaneously the whole way through the process,” she said. “I really believe the proposals for Lord Lansdowne’s land are really going to give something back to the town.

“The plans include the offer to build allotments at the bottom of Wenhill Lane, and the town would get back 14 acres of Castlefields too, so that’s really something. The houses are also quality builds.”

Calne’s planning committee originally refused the applications as they did not fit into the core strategy and the neighbourhood plan had not then been put into place, but the planning inspector found a way to fit the proposals into plans already made for housing by 2016.

Coun Caroline Ramsey, who represents Lickhill ward, where the Oxford Road development would be, has commented that Hills’s plans are totally inappropriate for the town, saying: “This was turned down because there are worries that the development would be totally isolated on the edge of town.

“It isn’t near the town centre, isn’t part of any existing community and it doesn’t fit into the strict guidelines of the planning framework.

“It wouldn’t fit in to what anyone wants or needs in Calne.”