Wickwar Parish Council has been informed that the Bloor Homes public consultation about a proposed development of 180 houses on land west of Sodbury Road Wickwar, will close on Wednesday 16th November 2021. A planning application will be submitted to South Gloucestershire Council soon after this date. Sodbury Road | Wickwar – Bloor Homes (sodburyroadwickwar.co.uk)
How do I ask questions or respond to the consultation?
All residents are strongly urged to ask questions and/ or register their views on the proposed development by:
- completing the back of the consultation leaflet and posting it back in the freepost envelope enclosed OR
- visiting the consultation website and filling in the online form.
Your Parish Council has requested that Bloor Homes hold a public meeting in order to present their proposals and answer questions. Bloor Homes DO NOT intend to hold a public meeting nor answer questions about their proposals in a public forum. For this reason Wickwar Parish Council believes that the public consultation is not up to standard. We have written to Bloor Homes and will be writing to South Gloucestershire Council, to express our concerns.
HOWEVER, WE STILL URGE RESIDENTS TO SUBMIT THEIR VIEWS BEFORE THE DEADLINE.
What is the Parish Council’s view?
Given the very limited information which has been provided about the proposals, Wickwar Parish Council submitted a series of detailed questions to the developers. Bloor Homes have answered in writing, having refused to attend a Council meeting to answer questions in person. The list of questions and answers can be downloaded below.
Questions-and-answers-Bloor-Homes-proposals-Oct-2021
Wickwar Parish Council’s position is that the public consultation has not been up to standard and should be repeated. We have submitted a brief interim response to the consultation which is set out below.
In response to the consultation, Wickwar Parish Council objects strongly to the proposed development of 180 new houses because it is speculative and conflicts with the objectives and policies of South Gloucestershire Council’s adopted Core Strategy and Policies, Sites and Places plan. It fails to address the Core Strategy’s objective to develop ‘communities with better integration between housing, jobs, services, public transport and facilities, so that people lead healthier lives and have the opportunity to reduce their CO2 footprint and adapt to the impact of climate change’.
Wickwar has expanded significantly in the last two years with further development in progress. 80 houses have been completed on the Tyndale Reach estate built by Bellway Homes, and a further 90 homes are planned for the Linden Homes development. Small development will increase this by a further 19 units, so 189 in total. By the time these houses have been completed the number of households in the parish will have increased by 25% without any strategically planned investment in infrastructure. This proposal will add almost as many houses again, without any strategic analysis of the infrastructure required to support it through the Local Plan process.
Wickwar does not have the infrastructure to support yet more housing development, with very poor access to essential services and inadequate public transport provision (as evidenced by South Gloucestershire Council’s Draft Data and Access Profile for Wickwar and the Parish Council’s response to this). This proposal will create a car dependent estate that will increase carbon emissions and accelerate climate change.
Finally, the proposal should not be considered at this point in time, as the new Local Plan for South Gloucestershire is still in development and no sites for housing development have yet been identified.