Wiltshire Council has been urged to reject the proposed outline plan for future development in Trowbridge, which includes an urban extension of the town of up to 600 homes.

The call came from members of the Hilperton Area Action Group, a working party of Hilperton Parish Council, which has nearly 400 members to protect the area's interests.

At a Wiltshire Council meeting on Tuesday, July 18, councillors voted to approve the publication of the draft Local Plan for public consultation later in the autumn.

They ignored calls by HAAG chair Celia Beckett to reject the Trowbridge element of the Local Plan which plans to expand development on Site 5 Land North of Trowbridge.

Mrs Beckett said: “We welcome the reduction in overall numbers for housing supply in the Hilperton and Staverton areas.

“We also welcome the proposed development at Innox Mills on a brownfield site. Our concern lies with the allocation of the development in the Hilperton parish.

“The site selected for the North Trowbridge local plan is approached from the roundabout on the A361 at the far end of the current Hilperton settlement.

“It is entirely within the Hilperton parish boundary in open countryside and yet is termed ‘an urban extension of Trowbridge’.  

“The 600 houses represent nearly three-quarters of Trowbridge’s HMA allocation. It is clear to the residents of Hilperton that this extension is not Trowbridge, nor urban and it ignores the village’s identity and environment."

The Local Plan new strategy identifies a requirement of 4,420 homes in the Trowbridge Housing Market Area for the period 2020 to 2038.

It says longer-term planning for growth benefits would include securing the provision of more education and employment facilities in Trowbridge.

These would include a new secondary school serving the 2,500 new homes planned for the Ashton Park area, plus 15 hectares of employment land intended to act as a buffer to protected habitats.

When the number of homes built and in the pipeline is deducted it leaves a further 810 homes to be accommodated at Trowbridge over the next 15 years.

But up to 600 of these new homes are being allocated for Site 5 Land North of Trowbridge which lies within the parish of Hilperton, while 175 could be allocated for the Innox Mills site, and the remaining 35 on other smaller sites in the Trowbridge area.

The Local Plan says: "Trowbridge will continue as a principal focus for development serving west Wiltshire.

"Employment growth will depend upon a good spread of employment sites linked to the A350 and by further regeneration of the town centre.

"Further housing development will reflect a slightly reduced forecast need, located to avoid green belt, in tandem with mitigation to prevent adverse effects on vulnerable, protected bat species."

Mrs Beckett added: “With a much lower number of houses required, it would have been possible to spread them amongst the different communities in the Trowbridge HMA rather than continuing to place them largely in Hilperton.

“We already have the development at Elizabeth Way of 425 houses which are also all in the parish of Hilperton, so there would be in total over 1,000 new houses in this area, a disproportionate number in what is a Special Area of Conservation. In addition, it will also add to the existing traffic difficulties.”

Hilperton Parish Council chairman Cllr Ernie Clark said: “I agree that the draft Local Plan for ‘Trowbridge Site 5’ is unsound.

“I hope that HAAG can establish this at the Public Inquiry if Wiltshire Council does not see sense and remove the site from the plan before it goes to inquiry next year.”