Planning for Westbury
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January 2021 Westbury Planning for Westbury 1 Wiltshire Council Local Plan - Planning for Westbury Contents Introduction 3 Scale of growth 3 How much should the town grow? 3 Additional homes 3 The Local Economy 4 Place shaping priorities 5 What priorities should we tackle? 5 Potential Development Sites 6 Where should development take place? 6 Settlement Profiles 10 2 Wiltshire Council Local Plan - Planning for Westbury Introduction 1. What will Westbury be like in the future? 4. The Wiltshire Core Strategy is the basis for • How much should the town grow? determining most planning applications. It also identifies land for development that provides • What priorities should we tackle? for new homes, jobs and infrastructure for our • Where should development take place? growing communities whilst balancing the need to protect the environment. The Local Plan will 2. Answers to these fundamental questions affect continue this role and therefore help shape the how the town develops over the next 15 years. places the community of Wiltshire live and work 3. The Council is thinking about these questions within. in planning Wiltshire’s future. It’s an important 5. The Council has come to some initial answers stage in the Council’s review of the current to these three questions. It is sharing them and Wiltshire Core Strategy and the development of wants your views. the Local Plan. Scale of growth How much should the town grow? 6. The Council assesses what amount of new The new strategy 2016-2036 homes are needed between 2016 and 2036, the period of the Local Plan. It does the same for how much land will be needed for new jobs and business. Detail on these The current strategy 2006-2026 requirements can be found in the ‘Emerging Additional new homes Spatial Strategy’ paper. 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 Additional homes 7. Assessments estimate levels of need for 9. The current strategy 2006-2026, the Wiltshire new homes within housing market areas, as Core Strategy, identified a requirement for these reflect where the majority of the local 1,500 homes. The new strategy proposes population live and work, where the majority a requirement of 1,820 homes for the plan of home moves take place and where there period 2016-2036. is a common range of private sector rents. 10. From this total estimate of need over the plan There are four housing market areas in period can be deducted homes already built Wiltshire and each area includes many and those already in the pipeline as shown in settlements. Westbury is in the Trowbridge the diagram below1. Housing Market Area. Homes already Homes already Homes to be built (2016-2019) in the pipeline planned for 8. The Council has considered how best to accommodate needs for new homes, setting scales of growth by testing different distributions. The result of this work suggests the scale of growth should change from what Additional new homes is currently planned as shown on the right. 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 1In Westbury 294 dwellings have been built between 2016-2019 and, at 1 April 2019, 815 homes are already in the pipeline (i.e. they have planning permission or have resolution to grant planning permission). 3 Wiltshire Council Local Plan - Planning for Westbury 11. When the number of homes built in the land. Where there can be certainty about pipeline is deducted it leaves a further 710 brownfield sites coming forward, this will homes to be accommodated up until 2036 reduce the amount of greenfield land sought 12. Both the Local Plan and neighbourhood plan in this review of the plan. can allocate sites for development. Each 17. Alongside neighbourhood plans, development community is encouraged to help determine briefs for individual sites and master plans for where development takes place through the larger areas, are a means for the community, preparation of a neighbourhood plan. But with developers and landowners, to help bring given the amount of new homes that need forward opportunities and achieve appropriate to be planned for, the Local Plan will allocate designs. some land to ensure a supply of deliverable The Local Economy land to meet strategic housing needs and if there are large or complex sites. 18. The Council has assessed what additional land is needed for business in each of the economic 13. The Local Plan and Neighbourhood Plan will zones of the County. These zones encompass be prepared along broadly similar timescales. many settlements. It has considered how best The emerging Westbury Neighbourhood Plan to accommodate needs for new business by will also be able to identify sites on which testing different distributions2. new homes can be built. The Neighbourhood Plan will also be able to propose development 19. On current evidence, further employment on sites, for example, that meet a particular land is needed at Westbury over and above housing need, for self-build housing or land already allocated in the Local Plan (Core for other uses, or that positively plan for Strategy). This is supported by the historically brownfield sites. high level of housing development in the town. However, there are already significant 14. Needs for development land should be met as employment areas, such as the West Wilts far as possible on brownfield sites in order to Trading Estate, Northacre Industrial Park and help minimise the loss of greenfield land. The Hawk Ridge Business Park, and there is a need Council suggests that a target of 90 homes to support and manage churn on these and could be built on brownfield sites over the next other existing sites. Therefore, only a modest 10 years . amount (1ha) of extra employment land is 15. The Local Plan ensures that the proposed required. scale of growth will be accommodated. It 20. There is a need to appropriately resolve the must be certain that there is a land supply future of the site of the former Lafarge cement sufficient to meet assessed need. It cannot rely works in Westbury, which was demolished in on the brownfield target being met by as yet 2016, including consideration of alternative unidentified windfall redevelopment, the scale uses. or timing of which is uncertain. 16. Planning positively for brownfield sites, as a part of preparing a neighbourhood plan, can also work alongside allocations of greenfield Questions WE1. What do you think to this scale of growth? Should there be a brownfield target? Should it be higher or lower? 2Further detail can be found in the Emerging Spatial Strategy (2021) paper. 4 Wiltshire Council Local Plan - Planning for Westbury Place shaping priorities What priorities should we tackle? i. Development should deliver well- 21. The Local Plan will contain a set of place designed homes, properly supported by shaping priorities for each main settlement. infrastructure, to meet Westbury’s needs They play a central role in developing planning ii. Development should contribute towards policies and proposals for development. sustainable transport links (particularly They will be the basis for an overarching walking and cycling routes) within the planning policy for Westbury that will guide town and to the surrounding parishes and development and the direction of growth. between the railway station, employment 22. Some priorities apply equally everywhere, areas and the town centre notably the need to address climate change iii. Develop a strategy for the regeneration of and achieve carbon reduction. Place-shaping the town centre taking into consideration priorities are intended to be those distinct to a the emerging Westbury Town Plan, to place. They may include: encourage spending, improve accessibility, • Important local objectives or issues and better manage traffic and parking and how they can be addressed safeguard heritage assets • Opportunities that have been identified iv. Development should contribute towards that can help support a local community’s the improvement of air quality and vision support the Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) in Westbury town centre. It should • Infrastructure requirements for which address traffic issues in the town including there are local aspirations and capable of consideration of, where appropriate, delivery or that are necessary to support the route of the A350 through the town, likely future growth including options for a bypass, and the 23. They must relate to the development and use need for a distributor road to relieve of land and so should revolve around specific congestion on Oldfield Road outcomes and their benefits v. Development should deliver well thought 24. They are also a starting point for policies that out open spaces and landscaping to ensure can be in neighbourhood plans. The Council residents can benefit from and enjoy their will continue to work with Town and Parish environment, regardless of whether they Councils to find the priorities best suited to are on foot or using transport, and should delivering sustainable development and town link with other areas to allow easy access to centre improvements. At this stage of the plan all parts of the town making process these are the draft priorities vi. Retain existing employment areas and that have been identified for Westbury. support their expansion to provide employment locally Questions WE2. Are these the right priorities? What priorities may be missing? How might these place shaping priorities be achieved? 5 Wiltshire Council Local Plan - Planning for Westbury Potential Development Sites Where should development take place? several or even all potential development sites. 25. Land around much of Westbury is being The information below shows what features, promoted for development by landowners possibly both good and bad, set each one or prospective developers. From this larger apart from others under consideration using amount of land, the Council is focussing its current evidence.