New homes may turn town into a dormitory

FEARS that Devizes could become a dormitory town, where people work and shop in other towns but come to the area just to sleep, have been raised after a second planning inquiry went against Kennet District Council.

Last week's decision to grant planning permission for housing on former allotment land at Spitalcroft in London Road was not unexpected, but, coming in the wake of the approval of up to 150 houses at the nearby Kverneland agricultural machinery factory site, it has begun to ring alarm bells.

In fact, around 1,000 houses are now planned for the London Road area over the next few years, and community groups are concerned that they will put an intolerable burden on the town's roads, schools, hospital and doctors' surgeries.

Following the decisions of planning inspectors Chris Frost and Ray Hiscox, developments can now go ahead at the Kverneland site and Spitalcroft. Up to 150 homes are planned at Kverneland and as many as 158 at Spitalcroft.

Planning permission has already been granted for 132 homes at Le Marchant Barracks and a development brief for 50 homes at Roundway Mill has been prepared.

Gaiger Brothers successfully argued for land behind the Focus DIY store to be allocated for housing and it is preparing a development brief for up to 110 houses.

Land beside the former police skid pan at Cannings Hill and at the MOD's old computer centre, Bureau West, on Horton Road, is also being discussed as potential sites for houses.

Kennet councillors will be asked in May whether to retain a possible 230 homes on land beside Quakers Walk in the Local Plan. The Spitalcroft inquiry inspector suggested Kennet might want to reconsider its inclusion in the light of new government guidance on greenfield land.

This would be a blow to the owners of the land, a charitable trust which runs a hospice for elderly people in Bristol. Their agents will not comment on Mr Frost's recommendation but its removal from the Local Plan could jeopardise a new primary school for the town, which the developers are offering to build.

It is more than likely that a planning application will still go in for the site, given the success of the last two appeals.

With all the new housing, where are these new residents going to work? London Road is already gridlocked at morning and evening rush hours with workers commuting in and out of the town.

In the 1991 census, 140 people lived in Devizes and worked in Swindon. By 2001 this had risen to nearly 400. Figures for those living in Devizes and working in Trowbridge rose from 90 to 185.

This opens up the debate on the sustainability of Devizes as a community. Will all these new homes make Devizes less self-contained than it now is?

In the 2001 census the number of jobs in the Devizes area rose from 6,670 in 1991 to 7,872 in 2001 while the number of people in work rose from 6,000 to 7,063.

But the Save Our

Spitalcroft community action group says much has changed since then, with homes at Nursteed Meadows, Wayside Farm and Roundway Hospital.

But there has not been a commensurate increase in job opportunities.

If a growing population meant an increase in retail trade, all might still be well, but there is evidence that many shop elsewhere.

Town centre manager Janet Duffield said: "On the plus side, it could attract more large chains to come to the town. With the retail offer we have at the moment, however, people moving into the town are likely to spend their money elsewhere."

Despite being the fastest growing town in Kennet, Devizes is being left behind. Crucially, it is still waiting for the new hospital it has been promised for more than 15 years.