Local Authorities have been busy making plans, with applications from both Swindon Borough Council and Central Swindon North Parish Council.

Old Town: A plan has been put forward to change what had been Connie’s  Chinese restaurant and takeaway into a pub and restaurant.

The proposal by D Pujari would see a rear extension added to the building at 53 Devizes Road, allowing the kitchen area to be moved further back, and using the space freed up as a bar and seating area.

New toilets would also be added, and the leaded windows would be replaced by plate glass.

The upstairs floor would remain a flat as it is now.

Wichelstowe: Two cottages on what used to be a farm could be knocked down in the name of safety.

Swindon Borough Council wants permission from its own planning department to demolish the cottages at 3 and 4 Southleaze that were part of the “now defunct”  Southleaze Farm.

The “unoccupied and redundant “building shave been subject to vandalism and an arson attack had badly damaged them and made them both unsafe and “beyond economic repair”.

Cheney Manor:  There will be more parking available for the gardeners and growers who use Cheney Manor allotments in Kiln Lane.

Central Swindon North Parish Council which owns the plot has been given the green light to cut back some ‘overgrown feral land’ to create 18 car parking spaces very close to where there are now five spaces and a bike shed.

The bike shelter and the fence protecting it will remain, but four of the existing parking spaces will be lost in the creation of the new car park. The surface will be geogrid mesh on top of the soil with gravel on top of the mesh.

Highworth: Highworth Scouts have been given the go-ahead to repair the Grade II-listed wall that runs around the scout hut on Eastrop, and which dates back to either the early 19th or late 18th century.

The scouts will get specialists to repair cracks in the wall and remortar and lift and replace the capping.

Wroughton: Applicant Jo Gould has been refused a certificate of lawfulness for the proposed installation of two-metre-high automatic electric gates at 2 Beranburh Field.

The reason is that the gates would be next to the road and taller than one metre from the ground, and therefore not covered as ‘permitted development’.

This refusal does not necessarily preclude an application for full planning permission succeeding.

Extensions: Application shave been submitted for consent to build extensions to houses, outbuildings or the conversion of garages and lofts into habitable spaces at: 2 Trent Road, Haydon Wick; 78 Walcot Road, Old Walcot; 34 Leverton Gate, Broome Manor; and 39 Ironstone Close, Redhouse.

Such applications have been approved for: 13 Hesketh Crescent, Old Town; 4 Meadowcroft, Stratton St Margaret; 16 Longfellow Close, St Andrews Ridge; 9 Acacia Drive, Pinehurst; 18 Willington Road, Redhouse; 49 Avebury Road, Penhill; 40 Grange Drive, Stratton St Margaret; 60 William Morris Way, Tadpole Garden Village; 21 Hodson Lane, Hodson; 9 Keswick Road, park South; 9 Callas Rise, Wanborough; 25 Woodland View, Wroughton; 1 Thornhill Drive, St Andrews Rise; The Woodpeckers. Sevenhampton Lane, Sevenhampton.

It was a very mixed result for Mahammad Yousat when he applied to build a two-storey side and single-storey rear extension to 74 Okebourne Park, Liden.  

Planners thought the side extension was too big for the house and overbearing of neighbours’ properties. 

They thought the rear extension was fine, but because both were part of the same application, which was refused, even that cannot be put up.