Why is there so much hurry for Swindon to consider the Front Garden application on January 24 and say whether or not they are minded to grant planning permission?

At the consultation about traffic along Croft Road it was thought that there would not be time to make any further changes in the light of concerns. Indeed many of the concerns raised earlier have not been met.

One case in point is the proposed tunnel under the M4 for the Southern Relief Road. This will encourage more traffic to enter Swindon and will do nothing to provide another access between the Front Garden and the rest of Swindon and so alleviate some of the traffic going to Croft Road. It seems that previous requests for the road to take a different route and cross the railway to Blagrove have fallen on deaf ears.

Nowadays development is meant to follow the Local and Structure Plans and the government is keen that the community is involved in formulating those plans. However, in the case of the Southern Relief Road, which is now being called the Croft Road Hay Lane Link (who has devised this name?) the planning application has pre-empted both the draft Local Plan 2011 and the draft Structure Plan 2016.

The consultation until December 8 is only the first round of public consultation on the Structure Plan. The second round of consultation on the Local Plan has just begun.

There are over 5,000 houses to build in the Northern Development and 2,000 ready to come forward in the town and around 8,000 that could come forward. There is a need to revive the town centre. So why is there such a rush?

Charmian Spickernell

CPRE North Wilts & Swindon Group