Government planning reform could result in “build, build, build” in Melksham and surrounding villages

LOCAL councils have branded the UK government’s proposed changes to the planning system in England as “un-democratic”.

Responding to the government’s white paper, ‘Planning for the Future’ – which proposes a number of reforms to “streamline and modernise the planning process” – councils have raised concerns that if successful, the changes could open the door to an increase in housing, whilst limiting the ability of local councils to “intervene”.

“Local influence will go out the window!” said cllr David Pafford at a recent meeting of Melksham Without Parish Council’s planning committee.

The government’s proposals could see new homes, schools and hospitals given “automatic” permission to be built on  land that has been designated as a “growth area”. And industry experts have warned that the changes could lead to ‘bad-quality housing’ and loss of local control.

Melksham Without Parish Council, Melksham Town Council have both raised concerns about the proposed reform’s impact on the town and surrounding villages 

Whilst Semington Parish Council has voiced its concern about the impact the changes could have on the village, explaining that the village has a history of “pro-actively supporting appropriate sustainable housing development”, but fears that the reform could “remove the ability of communities like Semington to protect themselves from the whims of builders and housing developers” and remove the buffer between the village and nearby towns. 

Chair of Melksham Without Parish Council, cllr Richard Wood said, “I’m very concerned about it, I think that it is going to be a step backwards. It’s going to open the doors to an awful lot of development that local areas are going to be very unhappy about.”

About the government’s three proposed zones to categorise land –  growth areas, renewal areas and protected areas – and the possible impact on Melksham, cllr Wood continued, “One is ‘hands off’(protected area), one is ‘oh that’s very pretty let’s be careful’(renewal area), and the other one is the rest of the country (growth area).

“Bath will be ‘hands off’, Bradford on Avon will be ‘oh that’s very pretty let’s be careful’, and Melksham will be ‘plenty of fields there, let’s crack on!’.

“It’s just blanket permission and a presumption to develop that will lead to huge difficulties for towns like ours – where we have limited facilities, no plans to produce more in the near future,  and a presumption to build, build, build!”

A spokesperson for the town council added, “The paper demonstrates a risk to local involvement in planning by taking ‘localism’ out of the planning system.  It appears central government want to go for ‘rule based’ planning as opposed to policy-based planning

“The paper defers to National Policy in many instances and the use of national codes – one size does not fit all; the character and local distinctiveness of ‘individual’ communities cannot be controlled effectively through national policies.”

Acting chair of Semington Parish Council, cllr Peter Smith said, “To put it bluntly, we are very concerned about the position that villages such as Semington will find themselves in should these plans go forward into legislation.”

Speculating  that villages  like Semington could be classed as a “renewal area”, cllr Smith continued, “It seems clear from this that the intention is that villages that are not specifically protected on the narrow ground available will not be protected at all from the sort of approaches that we have experienced over the past five years.  

“This will remove the ability of communities like Semington to protect themselves from the whims of builders and housing developers.  Indeed, it will remove our ability to have our say about the future of our community.  This seems profoundly anti-democratic.

“It also seems significant that neither of the consultation documents mention settlement boundaries or rural exception sites.  Because of this, we can only conclude that these are to disappear, thereby removing the protection from uncontrolled extensions of housing into the countryside.  

“The only realistic outcome of this can be the filling in of the green space between villages so that they become absorbed into each other and then into nearby towns.  We cannot really believe that this is what is intended, but it would seem to be an inevitable consequence of the current proposals.”

Consultation on proposals for the reform of the planning system in England closes on Thursday 29th October.