Shrewton Village Website
Shrewton Village Website.
Sample Planning Comments.
Last updated 26-Apr-2008 06:52

See List of potential Building Sites.

SAMPLE COMMENTS:
Local residents have until 25th April 2008 to send comments to the planning authority at Salisbury District Council. We invite website readers to copy us on the comments they have already sent in, here are some examples of general comments received so far.

·      If this building were to go ahead, the character of the villages Shrewton and Orcheston will be changed beyond all recognition. Tightly knit communities will vanish in a mess of urbanisation. 

Sir,

I am writing to express my concerns about the sites for potential development in Shrewton, and in particular Site Reference: 051 land to the south of hilltop rise Shrewton as I am a resident of Hilltop Close.

Out of all the potential sites this is the only development site within the current Shrewton village boundary, but in reality it is the only Greenfield site left within the boundary that has not currently been developed. The site has been left undisturbed for many years and as a result it now supports a variety of wild flora and wildlife, including resident pheasants and food for visiting bats, kestrels, owls and buzzards. The council would be setting a worrying precedent by approving such a development and so stating that they believe it to be acceptable to erase all remnants of nature from within the bounds of village, town or city.

This site significantly slopes from the top off Hilltop Close to the bottom at Parsons Green, and from Highfield Rise on the right to the A360 on the left. It currently absorbs a lot of the rainfall runoff, that if developed would end up in the storm drainage system. On all recent developments that storm drainage system is the open River Till that runs through the centre of the village, and this now struggles to support the new volumes of water entering it with regular flooding of low lying properties and the A360 and B390. Replacing open field with tarmac will considerably add to this.  

The original development of Highfield Rise and Hilltop Close was done by a small developer using a phased approach where he built 3 or 4 bungalows using half a dozen tradesmen, and then sold them before starting the next set of 3 or 4. Although the delivery of materials was still a nuisance it was manageable, as the volume of materials was small and deliveries infrequent. The small narrow roads on the hill could manage this volume of traffic, but they would not be able to manage the traffic of a major development as Highfield Rise bends significantly and is too narrow for two HGV’s to pass each other in opposite directions without one of them having to mount the pedestrian pavement. As neither the Londis nor the School have any off road parking, Highfield Rise is also used significantly for parking by shoppers and parents, which means that during the day the entrance to Highfield Rise allows only single file traffic. Both recent developments at the base of Highfield Rise, and The Limes have caused significant issues with the flow of traffic through the village and for the safety of pedestrians and cyclists when deliveries of materials were made by large HGV lorries often with trailers.

On reading all of the proposals for Shrewton I was annoyed at the very limited background supplied on the ability of Shrew ton’s infrastructure to support any development on a large scale.  As well as the previous issues raised with storm runoff, concerns are also constantly raised about the ability of the central sewage system to support the existing village population. The system has failed many times over recent years, which on some occasions has lead to sewage flowing back into the primary school toilets and so resulting in the schools closure. The village has no natural gas supply, and a history of problems with the supply of electricity, the ancient supply lines of fresh water and the ability of the telephone exchange to support the volume of lines required. All of these require significant investment by the associated utility companies before any mass development can take place.    

The proposals also imply that the village has a thriving set of local amenities. In reality this is not true. In reality there is only one though bus service from Devizes to Salisbury, that is very expensive and primarily used by school children and OAP’s who travel free. The local shop/ Post Office is busy but has no off road parking. The primary school still uses PortaKabins and struggles to get finance for new development. Two out of the three pubs are struggling to survive, with one likely to close in the near future. The village butcher has seen passing trade diminish and struggles to justify keeping the shop open. The village also has very few amenities for older children. It is wrong to say that development would bring more people and so rejuvenate these amenities, as over the last 15 years the village has already doubled in size and we have lost a pub, a newsagents, a hairdressers, a bakers, a bank, a second garage, a resident police presence and fulltime bus service to Amesbury.

I would like to make it clear that I am not against the future development of Shrewton, but I feel that it needs to be the right development that will improve and enhance the lives of the current residents as well as any new ones. Shrewton, like many villages, is struggling to keep the children who grow up here when they turn to adults. These are the residents that it should be trying to attract. The lack of employment opportunities, lack of amenities, lack of access to a modern primary school and quality sixth form education, lack of affordable and regular public transport to areas of local employment (e.g. what employment benefits does the expansion of Solstice park offer Shrewton residents if you are dependent upon public transport) means that there are no attractions for them to remain here. These are the issues that need to be resolved first, and then with the development of appropriate affordable housing the village will be in a position to grow again.

 Yours Sincerely
 David Levey

Dear Sir,
 
We were horrified to hear of the 15 proposed developments of large housing sites in Shrewton. It is completely unreasonable to expect so many houses to be absorbed happily into our village. There is little or no employment for the vast majority of villagers in Shrewton so an influx of a significant number of new houses will not help local employment in any way.  The infrastructure of the village is such that there is no room for expansion. The sewage system is already overloaded, frequently overflows and barely copes with recent new housing in Shrewton. The High Street and Tanners Lane are becoming well known and used as a rat run to avoid delays on the A303.  As a result these two narrow roads are bottle necks and are unable to cope with today's traffic let alone that which would be caused by the proposed developments.  This already causes significant hold ups particularly in the morning and afternoon with children being taken to and from the village school. 
 
We strongly object to the proposed developments which would destroy Shrewton as a village and turn it into a dormitory town with all the problems of traffic outlined above and an infrastructure incapable of absorbing so many more people and houses.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Peter and Angela Sturt

If you have already sent comments to the planning authority that you would like to share with the rest of the village please send them to: ShrewtonWebmaster

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