A LOBBYING group says Swindon should aim to build more homes in urban areas and fewer in the countryside.

The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England has reacted to Swindon Borough Council’s draft Local Plan, which is currently out for public consultation.

It envisages another 22,000 houses and flats in the borough. Most will be built in the New Eastern Villages and Kingsdown – but Highworth and Wroughton have been allocated nearly 1,5000 between them with 600 homes set for urban Swindon.

Chairman of CPRE Wiltshire Anne Henshaw said: “The draft plan emphasises that there could be around 600 flats in the centre of Swindon, but this is insufficient if we want to have a sustainable Swindon. 

“The CPRE survey of brownfield land has shown there is a significant under estimation of the capacity in town centres for housing. Instead of building on greenfield spaces we should be looking at developments on brownfield sites. Such developments will also increase economic activity in town centres.

“Growth should be central and should include employment opportunities – with 1.7 million vacancies in the country and opportunities for innovation we should be creating an environment where entrepreneurship can flourish.  

“From the details announced so far there is a genuine risk that villages like Wroughton and Highworth could lose their identity through these building plans and rural roads could turn into rat runs for traffic and harming our goals for zero carbon and sustainability.

“We must end the trend of the last 20 years of losing rural communities through the pursuit of easy money.”

But the council’s cabinet member behind the plan, Gary Sumner, defended  it. 

He said: “It is easy to make sweeping statements which will fit all towns without the details. Building outside of town is not easy money. It has taken some £100m of government funding to unlock the New Eastern Villages development which will be a sustainable urban extension, delivering well planned growth over the next 15 years complete with primary and secondary schools, sports pitches and considerable green space between the new villages.

“It will be well connected by public transport with a park and ride, walking and cycling routes and it has some of the town’s largest employment sites on its doorstep.

"We do anticipate that the regeneration of our town centre will eventually include much more residential, but the majority of the empty shops and offices are owned by the private sector and the values are not high enough to make demolition or high-quality conversion viable. Some empty office buildings have renewed their consents to convert three times without work commencing.

“If we followed the advice of CPRE and sought to allocate all our housebuilding to the town centre, our plan would be found ‘unsound’ by the government appointed Inspector for not being deliverable.  We would end up very quickly without a five-year housing land supply and the countryside would be at the mercy of speculative planning applications, which over recent years have upset the residents of Wroughton, Blunsdon and Highworth.

“Our plan delivers high quality, sustainable homes and employment growth on both brownfield and greenfield sites.”

The draft local plan is still out for consultation. Residents in Wroughton can go to a drop-in session at Ellendune community centre today, Saturday September 10 to talk to officers and councillors about the plans and all residents have until 5pm on Thursday September 16 to make their comments to the council either on swindon.gov.uk or by email to forwardplanning@swindon.gov.uk

After revision the new local plan will be put up for assessment by the Planning Inspector and if approved will come into force in 2022.