Committee to vote on Southwick Court Fields application

Residents have been fighting for the status in a bid to protect an area of Southwick Court Fields from plans for 180 new homes.

Wiltshire Council’s western area planning committee will vote on Wednesday, November 6, to determine the future of the land, which local experts have argued hides the remains of a Roman villa complex of “potentially national importance”.

READ MORE: Objectors await outcome of bid to register field as a village green

The land marked for up to 180 homes. (Image: Wiltshire Council) Land developer Waddeton Park and Savills recently won their appeal against the council’s refusal for 180 new homes on the site.

Residents previously gathered over 150 petition signatures to fight the development plans and requested that Wiltshire Council register the site as a village green.

To do so, they had to argue that “a significant number of inhabitants” had “indulged as of right in lawful sports and pastime on the land for a period of at least 20 years and they continue to do so at the time of application.”

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Wiltshire Council resolved to appoint an independent inspector to carry out a non-statutory public inquiry, the results of which were presented to councillors at the Western Area Planning Committee meeting on Wednesday, April 10.

The report advised that councillors reject the village green application on the grounds that not enough “lawful sports and pastimes” occur on the lower section of the land in question.

The inspector had also discounted the northern part of the land from the application because it had been included in Wiltshire Council’s local plan, something which, in planning law, is referred to as a trigger event.

Trigger events mean that a local authority cannot accept a town or village green application on the relevant site.

However, in the meeting, Cllr David Vigar, who represents the Trowbridge Grove area on Wiltshire Council, questioned whether the trigger event was valid.

Committee members agreed to delay the decision so a senior lawyer at Wiltshire Council could investigate the issue.

The report which is ready to be presented to councillors on Wednesday, November 6, confirms the existence of ongoing planning-related trigger events, which lawfully blocked the village green registration for parts of the land at the time of application.

It recommends that the committee relies on the inspector’s findings, which indicate the evidence does not support the village green application.