Council grilled for ignoring protest over houses on golf course

Highworth is up in arms about the possibility of 30 per cent of the grassland off Swindon Road being used for housing. Though most of the site would remain accessible, protestors claimed the 'best bit' would be built on and remove a valuable chunk of public space which provides people with fresh air and 'peace of mind.'

This proposal forms just part of a wider Local Plan for the entire borough which sets out property, infrastructure, industry and environment policies for the Swindon area through to 2036 - but it has received more feedback than any other section.

A petition signed by more than 4,500 people urged Swindon councillors to remove the housing allocation from the plan. But leader David Renard and Cabinet member for planning Coun Gary Sumner worried that “the whole borough would suffer” if the plan was found unsound.

This warning came during a fraught meeting in which Highworth Town Council hashed out their problems with the plan before its fate is decided at this Thursday’s meeting.

Coun Paul Newton-Smith said: “You say it’s unfair to the rest of Swindon if you look at this as a special case, but at what point do you start to take notice of the people who put you in office instead of ignoring them?”

Coun Sumner said: “The comments were many but, in planning terms, were not sufficient to see the site removed.”

Coun Renard added: “We have to look across the whole borough and complete this plan by the end of next year. If there is not enough housing allocated to meet the five-year housing supply, the inspector will find it unsound. The whole borough will suffer if the plan is unsound.

“If the land is outside of the Local Plan, we would then have to put it out to tender for alternative providers and we would seek best use of it.”

Coun David Renard and Coun Gary Sumner debated plans to build on an old golf course which Andy Day and 4,500 others are against

Hundreds of homes have been approved in the Swindon area but developers have been slow to build them, so some have not counted towards the overall target.

Among areas such as the New Eastern Villages, Wichelstowe, Tadpole Garden Village and Badbury Park, proposals to increase housing in Wroughton and Highworth have not been popular.

Coun Renard said council officers need to check whether the target would still be missed if the golf course homes were removed from the plan.

Coun Ken Saunders wondered why this was not already known and asked: “Are you saying have these 350 homes or kiss goodbye to the whole public space? It’s a great disservice to this community to have this taken away. Swindon is bursting at the seams with open space but there’s little around here.

“You are not considering the local population, it’s a cop-out, let’s negotiate like we’ve been asking to do since we learned Twigmarket was withdrawing [in 2019].”

Highworth argued they had not been formally approached about the plans at first; that Swindon considered the idea back in August 2020 but waited until the last minute to add it into the Plan; and that its risks have not been properly assessed.

Mayor Richard Williams said: “You say to Highworth that this has only just been put together – that’s a barefaced lie or you were misled. Why did you not come to us earlier? When are you going to be honest?"

This was met with applause and murmurs of agreement from the dozen members of the public who attended the meeting.

Coun Gary Sumner said: “You are looking for a smoking gun and I don’t see how this is taking the conversation forward. There is a missed opportunity for conversation because your stance has been ‘100 per cent of the space or nothing’. There is always an opportunity to reshape the site so people can still walk through it."

The town council quibbled its categorisation as countryside when they consider it open public space but Coun Sumner insisted it had always been countryside.

He added: “If the 30 per cent housing does not come forward, Highworth might not get the 70 per cent of land for public use. If does not get allocated for housing, it will be re-marketed, potentially as leisure site because it is a leisure asset at present.”

Coun Williams: “I thought you said it was countryside? You can’t build a golf course and still call that land countryside, can you? All I’m hearing is ‘we have put it in the plan and you can’t take it out, regardless of the consultations’.”

Coun Sumner added: “Yes you can. We fully respect the petition, the people were engaged and have had their say and we have listened.”

This prompted laughter and shaking of heads from the public area.

Highworth Town Council will still push for the entire area to be property-free but, if the January 20 SBC meeting approves the Local Plan, they will then consider alternative options.