A meeting of Semington PC (a virtual/remote meeting via Zoom technology) will take place at 7.30pm on Wednesday 6 January 2021 using Zoom technology.
This will be a virtual/remote meeting and you are invited to participate/’attend’.
I have attached an Agenda for your information.
The meeting is open to the public. If you wish to view or ‘attend’ the meeting and/or address the PC on any matter during the Public Participation item – immediately prior to the formal meeting – please contact me (email: roger.p.coleman@btinternet.com ) and I will provide you with the Zoom ‘log-in’ details. Your details will only be retained by me for the purpose of contacting you. They will not be passed to anyone else and will be deleted once I have contacted you.

Roger Coleman, Clerk to Semington Parish Council

View Agenda
6th January 2021 Parish Council Meeting – Agenda

Click here to view full notice information

A meeting of Semington PC (a virtual/remote meeting via Zoom technology) will take place at 8pm on Wednesday 25 November 2020 using Zoom
technology. This will be a virtual/remote meeting and you are invited to attend.

I have attached an Agenda which includes a list of decisions made via email to date.

The meeting is open to the public. If you wish to attend/view the meeting and/or address the PC on any matter during the Public Participation
item – immediately prior to the formal meeting – please contact me (email:roger.p.coleman@btinternet.com and I will provide you with the Zoom ‘log-in’ details. Your details will only be retained by me for the purpose of contacting you. They will not be passed to anyone else and will be deleted once I have contacted you.

View Agenda
25th November 2020 Parish Council Meeting – Agenda

It has been filmed across our villages and includes an Act of Remembrance; if those watching would like to observe the national two minutes silence at 11am on either Remembrance Sunday or 11th November you will need to start watching the recording at 10.50am.
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM

What is not indicated in the Wiltshire Council statement is that it has been exploring a 4th option for the route.  This would be a dual carriageway from Beanacre running round Bowerhill to the Littleton roundabout (where the current Semington by-pass crosses the A361).  This 4-lane road would be a by-passes of the current by-pass and would once again split the parish.   It would involve crossing both the Kennet and Avon and Semington Brook and crossing land prone to flooding.

The MIN reports that a resolution to the Environment Agency’s objections to the plans is in sight.  Project manager for the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust, Paul Lenaerts, told Melksham News, “The Environment Agency are currently still maintaining their objection to the planning application, but we have reached agreement on all but two of their concerns, and we are hopeful that these can be resolved over the next few months.”

The objections relate to [i] the likely effects of discharging locks into the river, in low-flow river conditions, and on flows and levels particularly downstream of the proposed weir; and [ii] to the extent of the mitigation required to offset the negative environmental impact of the proposed weir (which has a maximum fall of around 30cm).”

These comments on the Planning for the Future white paper come from Semington Parish Council which represents around one thousand people in the West Wiltshire village of Semington, and the nearby small settlements of Little Marsh and Littleton.  Wiltshire is a county of old villages like ours, each of which is connected to other villages by ancient tracks, by-ways, green lanes and drove roads, most of which are now rights-of-way.  Typically, they are also now connected to larger settlements by the road network as well as by these routes.

Semington is linked in these ways to the towns of Melksham to the north, and Trowbridge to the south.  They are between three and four  miles away.  These towns are important to Semington as centres of employment, commerce, transport, secondary schooling, further education, health and leisure.  We are well connected to these towns but we are separate, and culturally distinct, from them.  Significantly for us, there is another distinct village settlement between Semington and each of the towns.

Semington Parish Council and the community we represent understand the need for additional housing, including affordable housing, and our policy is to promote appropriate housing development within the community.  Looking back over the period since the Second World War, there are numerous examples of such development in the village.  All have been relatively small additions to the village housing stock and this has allowed the village to grow whist retaining its integrity as a settlement and as a community.  We have been assisted in this by the policies of the various planning authorities within Wiltshire over the years.  Currently, the Wiltshire Council policy is to promote sustainable housing development.  This means favouring the building of housing in urban settings where there are employment, commerce, transport, education, health and leisure facilities, and restricting development in villages like Semington where there are not.

Over the last twenty years there have been a number of examples of Semington Parish Council and the Wiltshire planning authority co-operating so that new housing is developed in the village.  Currently, for example, we are waiting for the building of 24 new homes (including affordable homes).  This project was a collaboration between a small local developer and the village, where there was extensive collaboration and discussions with the Parish Council and local people.  This development met with village approval because it was seen to meet our housing needs and was appropriate in scale and design.  We have been told by our local Wiltshire councillor that this collaboration was exemplary.  Our good record of working with Wiltshire Council is one of the reasons that the Parish Council decided against developing its own neighbourhood plan.

Over the same period (2015 to the present), however, there have been two attempts by national property developers to obtain planning permission for large housing developments outside the Semington village settlement boundary.  Had these been approved, they would, together, have increased the village housing stock by over 25%.  Each was aggressive in approach, and characterised by a disdain for discussions with local people.  It was something being done to us, not with us.  In fact, the Parish Council was told by each developer that there was no point in opposing their plans as they were bound to succeed.  That they did not, was due to the combined efforts of villagers, who protested in huge numbers to Wiltshire Council planners (and subsequently to the Planning Inspectorate), our local councillor, and Wiltshire Council, which was robust in defending its policies and communities, including at appeal.

We have provided this background to Semington and its record on housing development because it is necessary for an understanding of our disquiet at what the government is proposing in the White Paper.  To put it bluntly, we are very concerned about the position that villages such as Semington will find themselves in should these plans go forward into legislation.  Our fears are grounded in the fact that the only substantive mention of villages in the White Paper is this:

Renewal areas “suitable for development” – this would cover existing built areas where smaller scale development is appropriate. It could include the gentle densification and infill of residential areas, development in town centres, and development in rural areas that is not annotated as Growth or Protected areas, such as small sites within or on the edge of villages. There would be a statutory presumption in favour of development being granted for the uses specified as being suitable in each area. Local authorities could continue to consider the case for resisting inappropriate development of residential gardens. 

It seems clear from this that the intention is that villages that are not specifically protected on the narrow ground available will not be protected at all from the sort of approaches that we have experienced over the past five years.  This will remove the ability of communities like Semington to protect themselves from the whims of builders and housing developers.  Indeed, it will remove our ability to have our say about the future of our community.  This seems profoundly anti-democratic.

It also seems significant that neither of the consultation documents mention settlement boundaries or rural exception sites.  Because of this we can only conclude that these are to disappear thereby removing the protection from uncontrolled extensions of housing into the countryside.  The only realistic outcome of this can be the filling in of the green space between villages so that they become absorbed into each other and then into nearby towns.  We cannot really believe that this is what is intended, but it would seem to be an inevitable consequence of the current proposals.

To summarise, Semington village has a history of pro-actively supporting appropriate sustainable housing development in its community.  Is it really too much to ask that we will be able to continue to do this?

Peter Smith

Acting Chair, Semington Parish Council

Two applications are being considered:

– PROPOSAL A: Residential development of up to 26 dwellings (of which 50% would be affordable) with associated car parking, access, internal roads, public open space (including retention of the existing WWII Pill Box), landscaping, drainage and other associated infrastructure.

– PROPOSAL B: residential development of up to 20 entry level affordable dwellings with associated car parking, access, internal roads, public open space, landscaping, drainage and other associated infrastructure.

The Inspector says that he is not proposing to hear detailed evidence on housing land supply and his preliminary views about the main issues in this appeals are:

[i] for Appeal A, whether the proposed development would be in an appropriate location, having regard to the development plan and national policies relating to housing; and

[ii] for both appeals, the effect of the proposals on the character and appearance of the surrounding area, with particular regard to size and relationship with the settlement of Semington.

The Parish Council has registered to make a submission at the inquiry.  This will reiterate its opposition to developing this field for housing.

…………………………………………………………..

The Planning Inspectorate references are:

APPEAL A    APP/Y3940/W/19/3236860

APPEAL B    APP/Y3940/W/20/3253180