January 2021 Devizes Planning for Devizes 1 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 Devizes Introduction 1. What will Devizes 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 • What priorities should we tackle? that provides for new homes, jobs and • Where should development take place? infrastructure for our growing communities whilst balancing the need to protect the 2. Answers to these fundamental questions environment. The Local Plan will continue this affect how the town develops over the next 15 role and therefore help shape the places the years. community of Wiltshire live and work within. 3. The Council is thinking about these questions 5. The Council has come to some initial planning Wiltshire’s future. It’s an important answers to these three questions. It is stage in the Council’s review of the current sharing them and wants your views. Wiltshire Core Strategy and the development of 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 Spatial Strategy’ paper. Additional new homes 0 500 1000 1500 2000 Additional homes 9. The current strategy 2006-2026, the Wiltshire 7. Assessments estimate levels of need for Core Strategy, identified a requirement for new homes within housing market areas, as 2010 homes. The new strategy proposes these reflect where the majority of the local a requirement of 1330 homes for the plan population live and work, where the majority period 2016-2036. of home moves take place and where there 10. From this total estimate of need over the is a common range of private sector rents. plan period can be deducted homes already There are four housing market areas in built and those already in the pipeline as Wiltshire and each area includes many shown in the diagram below1. settlements. Devizes is in the Chippenham Homes already Homes already in Homes to be Housing Market Area. built (2016-2019) 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. 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1In Devizes 370 dwellings have been built between 2016-2019 and, at 1 April 2019, 629 homes are already in the pipeline (i.e. they have planning permission, resolution to grant planning permission or are allocated for development in the Devizes Neighbourhood Plan (2015)). This includes 182 dwellings on sites allocated in the Devizes Neighbourhood Plan. 3 11. When the number of homes built and in the plan. Sites identified formally, with sufficient pipeline is deducted it leaves a further 330 certainty, either in the development plan or homes to be accommodated up until 2036. by granting planning permission, reduce the Both the Local Plan and neighbourhood plan need. can allocate sites for development. Each 16. Alongside neighbourhood plans, development community is encouraged to help determine briefs for individual sites and master plans for where development takes place though larger areas, are a means for the community, the preparation of a neighbourhood plan. with developers and land owners, to help bring The Local Plan will only allocate land where forward brownfield opportunities and achieve necessary to ensure supply of deliverable land appropriate designs. to meet strategic housing needs and for large or complex sites. The Local Economy 12. The current Devizes Neighbourhood Plan 17. The Council has assessed what additional land allocates land for development within is needed for business in each of the economic the built up area of Devizes. The Devizes zones of the County. These zones encompass Neighbourhood Plan is currently being many settlements. It has considered how best reviewed and covers a wider geographical area to accommodate needs for new business by 2 encompassing the neighbouring parishes of testing different distributions . Bishops Canning and Rowde. At present the 18. On current evidence, further employment strategic housing need in the town will be met land is not needed at Devizes. Land is already though allocations in the Local Plan. allocated in the Local Plan. Employment land 13. Needs for development land should be met as supply has been reviewed and the existing far as possible on brownfield sites in order to supply is available and capable of meeting help minimise the loss of greenfield land. The the needs. Council suggests that a target of 150 homes should be built on brownfield sites over the next 10 years2. 14. The Local Plan ensures that the proposed scale of growth will be accommodated. It must be certain that there is a land supply sufficient to meet assessed need. It cannot rely on the brownfield target being met by as yet unidentified windfall redevelopment, the scale or timing of which is uncertain. 15. Meeting a brownfield target will reduce the need for greenfield sites in future reviews of the Local Plan. This could be positively addressed through the revised neighbourhood Questions DE1. 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 Place shaping priorities What priorities should we tackle? draft priorities that have been identified for 19. The Local Plan will contain a set of place Devizes: shaping priorities for each main settlement. They play a central role in developing i. Deliver homes to respond to local planning policies and proposals for needs that are within the environmental development. They will be the basis for an constraints of the town recognising the overarching planning policy for Devizes that proximity of the North Wessex Downs Area will guide development and the direction of of Outstanding Natural Beauty, extent of growth. best and most versatile agricultural land and air quality issues. 20. Some priorities apply equally everywhere, notably the need to address climate change ii. Development should contribute towards and achieve carbon reduction. Place shaping the improvement of air quality and support priorities are intended to be those distinct to the Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) a particular place. They may include: in Devizes town centre. • Important local objectives or issues and iii. Deliver jobs to maintain a buoyant local how they can be addressed economy in Devizes, including bringing forward the employment allocations and • Opportunities that have been identified employment development through mixed that can help support a local community’s uses. vision iv. Encourage town centre and tourism-led • Infrastructure requirements for which regeneration including through the delivery there are local aspirations and capable of of the Devizes Wharf Regeneration Scheme. delivery or that are necessary to support likely future growth v. Ensure new development has high design standards to reflect the high-quality built 21. They must relate to the development and form in Devizes. use of land and so should revolve around specific outcomes and their benefits vi. Ensure new development is well connected to the town centre to encourage the use of 22. They are also a starting point for policies sustainable transport methods, particularly that can be in neighbourhood plans. The walking and cycling, and help alleviate Council will continue to work with Town and traffic congestion. Parish Councils to find the priorities best suited to delivering sustainable development and town centre improvements. At this stage of the plan making process these are the Questions DE2. Are these the right priorities? What priorities may be missing? How might these place shaping priorities be achieved? 5 Potential Development Sites Where should development take place? 26. Each potential development site has its own 23. Land around much of Devizes is being individual characteristics. Rarely is one site promoted for development by land owners very clearly the best choice. There are a range or prospective developers. From this larger of different constraints and opportunities amount of land, the Council is focusing its associated with each. Some are common to own assessment on a smaller pool of potential several or even all potential development sites. development sites that are shown on the map The information below shows what features, below. How these sites have been chosen is possibly both good and bad, set each one explained in a separate ‘site selection report’, apart from others under consideration using published alongside this document. Not all current evidence. This pool of sites can be these sites will be needed to meet the housing used to allocate sites in the Local Plan. One requirement in Devizes, further assessment or more sites in whole or part will be selected will be carried out following the consultation and the rest of the pool of the potential to identify which site or site(s) will be proposed development sites will remain as they are – i.e. for allocation in the draft plan. potentially available for consideration in any subsequent plan review.