I have been busy over the last month helping residents defend against a planning application, this time 47 houses in West Lavington. As you probably know, this has come on top of 19 new homes in the village last year and 50 homes the year before that; significant growth without any extension of local infrastructure.
I thought I would outline in a little more detail what I have been doing to support residents so that you know how I can help you across The Lavingtons in the future if needed.
The planning application came in at the beginning of May and proposed building on a field behind White Street. I immediately went through the application in detail to understand the proposal and take a view of the positives and negatives it would bring. The parish council met to discuss the application and roughly sixty residents were in attendance. I spoke during the meeting to provide some insight to the planning process and took notes throughout to record all the concerns that residents raised. The morning after the meeting I hand delivered a letter to all the houses that backed onto the site or were located along the single-lane roads leading to it. My letter offered to share my formal response to the application so that some of the arguments and policy references could be used in neighbour responses. I spent the next few days turning each concern raised by residents into detailed planning arguments by quoting specific elements of the National Planning Policy Framework, Wiltshire Core Strategy and Neighbourhood Plan. I also reviewed the Pre-Application Advice that was given to the applicant last year by Wiltshire Council and extracted relevant objections officers raised to identify the weak points of the application. All of this was compiled into a seven-page document which I shared with the planning officer more than forty residents and our parish council. Finally, I wrote to the planning officer and called-in the application, meaning I blocked her from approving the application (if she was minded to) instead sending it to a full committee hearing.
I think everyone is now aware that Government is intent on building huge numbers of homes and sadly the housebuilding target for Wiltshire has doubled whilst other parts of the country have seen targets reduced. Development can be very positive when it is in the right place, designed alongside the community and include improvements to infrastructure. Unfortunately, many developments we see are poorly designed and overburden our roads and local facilities leaving us scrabbling around to mount a defence. Sadly it appears upcoming changes to national planning policy will see greater housing targets for Wiltshire alongside a push to spread them across much smaller rural settlements. Just as I have many times over the last five years, I will always assist you in planning matters so feel free to reach out if you need any help or advice, either opposing a bad application or supporting a good one. As with many things, we are far stronger if we work together.
You may contact me about this or any other matter by email to dominic.muns@wiltshire.gov.uk or by phone on 07585 394 178.
