Manor Cottage, The Flood, Winterslow SP5 1QT To: developmentmanagement@.gov.uk

Dear Sirs,

Ref. 17/02002 Planning Application “Middleton Green”, Winterslow

We write with reference to the above and wish to object to this development.

The latest Middleton Green proposal is still far too big for the village and it’s infrastructure to accommodate, and envisages a sudden and substantial concentration of housing in an area of the village with fundamentally unsuitable access.

We recognise the need for more housing in Winterslow (especially affordable housing) and we favour smaller developments dispersed around the village, as envisaged by the draft Neighbourhood Plan. Like this, local housing needs can be comfortably met without the disproportionate and sudden impact on village infrastructure of a single large development and the resulting alteration to the nature of life in the village.

Our objections to the current Middleton Green proposals are specifically:

1. Impact on Village Highways: • Middleton Green would be almost opposite another new development, Barley Fields, which is currently nearing completion. Residents from both developments are likely to want to use the same routes in and out of the village, greatly augmenting the volume of traffic along very unsuitable stretches of village road. Weston Lane, and Roman Road through to Clough Lane, two alternative routes for nearest access to Salisbury, are both narrow and twisting, with barely enough room for cars to pass side by side in places. The main village thoroughfare from Roman Road along Middleton is a single file traffic “pinch point,” unsuited to cope with the likely much increased traffic flow at peak times. We also note in a letter dated 7th August, 2015 from Savills the suggestion that a passing place be put in along Middleton Road to allow a bus or two cars to pass safely; we think this adequately indicates the nature of much of the immediate road infrastructure and should warn of the likely consequences of introducing too large an augmentation of housing in this section of the village.

• In our opinion, some of the assumptions made in the Travel Plan and Travel Statement produced by Paul Basham Associates are rather unrealistic with regard to how the increased traffic flow would be handled in reality. While we find it perfectly reasonable that people within the village should walk or cycle to village amenities, there is absolutely no obligation on the eventual purchasers of Middleton Green properties to so do, nor as these documents seem to suggest, “car share” on a regular basis. It is highly likely, given the reality of today’s village life with reduced availability of public transport (acknowledged in the surveys), that in many if not most instances, there will be more than one car per household, with single occupancy journeys a simple necessity. To this extent we find the “Trip Generation Table” provided by Paul Basham Associates something of a fantasy. Please note that as local residents, we also find the photograph “Figure 3: Existing Road Conditions in Middleton Road” in the Transport Statement misleading as a visual indication of average road width/conditions.

• We suggest that once the Barley Fields development is complete and prior to granting planning permission, Highways Authority complete a full and impartial survey of roads in the immediate vicinity of the proposed Middleton Green development to include the principal routeways out of the village. We believe the impracticality from a highways point of view, of a large scale development on this site would then be all too apparent.

2. Housing Needs and Urbanisation of Village Life: • In conjunction with the existing Barley Fields development, granting planning permission to the much larger Middleton Green site would make the centre of Winterslow village far more urban in nature in a way that the smaller, more dispersed development suggested in the draft Neighbourhood Plan would not.

• The smaller developments envisaged in the draft Neighbourhood Plan would still allow for the building of affordable homes needed by the village. As Barley Fields shows, smaller developments are equally capable of providing affordable housing meeting a high standard. We would favour a very much reduced Middleton Green plan just delivering affordable homes on the site of area 22 of the draft Neighbourhood Plan, but we doubt this would meet the requirements of Prime Tower or the land owner.

• The housing needs of South Wiltshire as a whole, should be met firstly from brown field sites across the area, prior to urbanising South Wiltshire villages. There is currently a large number of new houses available on the edge of Salisbury.

3. School Numbers: • School numbers inevitably vary from year to year. Temporary adjustment for a low intake year is fairly easy to make. If numbers rise suddenly due to the building of forty-six new homes (not forgetting admissions from Barley Fields also), the school is very likely to become oversubscribed, leaving some village children having to commute to other villages to find a school place.

4. Social Contribution Funds: • We note the financial contributions to the village outlined by Prime Tower. We hope that any decision will be made on the merits of housing provided and not on the basis of contribution to village funds offered. Other smaller developments will also provide money for village amenities.

We note in Wiltshire Council’s Planning Consultation Report: Services Development Enabling Team, dated 24/03/17, that the proposed development is outside the settlement boundary and therefore contrary to policy, making it only suitable if the planning process is supported by the Neighbourhood Plan or a local community led process. We suggest from the recent decision of Winterslow Parish Council to object to this development and the number of objection letters submitted to you to date that this development seems to lack the requisite local support.

Yours faithfully,

Lance and Anita McNulty