Why has Melksham been ‘singled out’ for more than its fair share of housing development in recent years? The truth is it hasn’t. Every town and large village is the subject of speculative planning applications by housing developers, not just in Melksham, or even Wiltshire, but all over the country.
Until last December Wiltshire Council were powerless to fend off these applications due to something called the Housing Land Supply. This is a completely artificial figure calculated by using the number of dwellings built, under construction or planned to work out how many more need to be planned for and built. As the calculation is derived from figures provided by the developers themselves it is always going to work in their favour.
Up until last December Wiltshire Council had to show that they had a five-year Housing Land Supply. They were unable to do that, so a lot of planning applications were approved on that basis. Last December the government of the day reduced that figure to four years, which Wiltshire Council were able to meet, and several speculative planning applications were refused on that basis. However, at a recent planning appeal hearing (in Westbury) Wiltshire Council had to admit that they are now unable to meet even that figure.
So now the flood gates will open, the applications will pour in, and Wiltshire Council will be unable to refuse them on that basis, unless there are technical reasons for refusal (like highway safety issues), until they can restore plan-led development by progressing their draft Local Plan to adoption, and the reviewed Melksham Neighbourhood Plan needs to be progressed in tandem, as it needs to conform to the Local Plan in place at the time. These Plans are both on track to move to the next stage in the Autumn.
And why is it always greenfield sites developers go for I hear you ask. Developers go for greenfield sites because they are readily available and cheaper to develop. Brownfield sites are few and far between, take longer and cost more to develop.
The planning system in this country is broken and things will not change until there is some radical reform in that area.
