The Devizes Guardians

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All are cordially invited to attend the Annual General Meeting which is to be held on Wednesday 2nd November at 7.30pm in the Town Hall (Cheese Hall).  The brief formalities will be followed by an opportunity to discuss the Localism Bill and any policy matters which members wish to air.

This is the text of a letter sent by Roger Giraud-Saunders to the Gazette and Herald for publication.  The letter has not been published at the time of posting,

“Yet again the town is under threat of unbridled development. The latest schemes will, if they come to fruition, add approximately 700 houses to an already overdeveloped town. The consequences will be felt by everyone in Devizes. Congestion will increase and pollution, already above levels which are in breach of EU standards, will become worse. Town centre trade will fall. Who will come to Devizes just to sit in a traffic jam?

The developers will doubtless make their normal slick presentations and will promise improvements to the infrastructure. All the usual clichés will be trotted out to try and convince people that their plans are good for Devizes. The promises they make are empty. The open land will be lost under tarmac and concrete. They will not suffer the consequences of their schemes as they move on to blight other towns and villages. Their motives are purely financial and all the incentives they offer prove to be of little benefit when the realities of more traffic congestion etc come home to roost.

Everyone in Devizes needs to protest against further developments of this nature. It may not be in your backyard, but it will affect the quality of your life and the quality of life in the town you chose to live in.

I hope you will all feel moved to register your disapproval of these schemes. The means to register your feelings exist. Sign the petition raised by Laura Mayes on her website, write to Carolyn Gibson at Carolyn.gibson@wiltshire.gov.uk.

Additionally, you are all more than welcome to voice your concerns at our Annual Public Meeting  in the Cheese Hall on the 2^nd of November 2011 starting at 7.30pm.”

To: greg@gregclark.co.uk
Subject: National Planning Policy Framework

Dear Mr Clarke,

I have responded to the on-line consultation on this draft policy, but would wish to explain my unhappiness to you personally as well.

My principal concern is the use of the term ‘presumption of sustainable development’ I feel bound to say that there is little evidence available to my planning officers as to what ‘sustainable development’ means and, hitherto, no demonstration by the local developers that they have any concern for it or understanding of it either!

There is a presumption that we have a sustainable community in Devizes (Claire Perry), because we have access to schools, doctors and other facilities. This is true but, along with a desperately poor road system, all of them are under stress. We have (fortunately) low levels of unemployment in the town – mostly low/semi-skilled jobs, but a complete lack of significant numbers of ‘added-value jobs’. Therefore, any future development must be employment-led and anticipated not followed by the appropriate infrastructure development. This does not square with your premise in the draft policy that house building will lead economic recovery!

I would add one further comment. Our Victorian forefathers gave us a lesson in sustainable development which we largely ignore these days. Along with good sewers, they gave us gardens, parks and other public open space. Today,
with councils pleading poverty and unable to purchase land, developers do have the opportunity to leave us a legacy. They choose to ignore this. At best we get the token children’s play facility and not much else. The previous administration has left us with some appalling, high density developments and, without assistance in provoking developers to provide meaningful open space, we will continue to have swathes of uninterrupted housing development doing nothing for community well-being. In this context, development on a site at Coate in Swindon is likely to be brought to your department’s attention. Can I say that I utterly deplore the approach to
development here for just the reasons I have attempted to outline.

Yours sincerely,

Nigel Carter

This is the text of a letter sent by Jeff Ody to the Telegraph. A much edited version of it was published on Wednesday 7th September:

“In view of the concerns over additional house building around Devizes, the Government’s proposals to exploit its ‘Localism’ Bill to promote ‘a presumption of approval of sustainable development’ has particular significance for our Town.
 
The very fact of the vagueness of this momentous terminology is sinister, allowing commentators on all sides to see in it both the best and the worst of possible interpretations. My own suspicion is that its true meaning is being smokescreened in Whitehall, to fudge the differences of objective on either side of the argument. Most Whitehall illogicalities are the result of either Cockup or Conspiracy : in this case I would go for the Conspiracy explanation. Those responsible want to please all of their political masters with an all-purpose form of words, without coming down on one side or the other.
 
The dangerous result will be, that the housing developers and their lawyers will have a field day, tying the planning regulations into knots and costing the Council planners more than we can afford to oppose their Applications. In the Kennet days the going rate to fight a Planning Appeal was £50,000 a time, and nowadays Wiltshire is much less well funded.
 
What I believe the Government want us to think, is that ‘there should be a presumption in favour of any development being Sustainable’, rather than that ‘there should be a presumption in favour of any development and that it should be Sustainable’, which is a very different matter. However neither is tough enough to withstand the rotweilers the developers use for lawyers!”