Notes from Public Planning Meeting Monday 30th July 2025 Regarding Highview Farm Planning Application: PL/2025 05825

Chairman Netheravon Parish Council Cllr Burke welcomed everyone to the meeting and explained about the application we were here to discuss. He then handed over to Cllr Coslett to chair the meeting.

Cllr Coslett said he would like to hear comments and questions / observations from the members of the public and then he would outline the Parish Council’s response. He asked if there was anyone representing the owner and a gentleman introduced himself as the part owner, he invited him to speak. The gentleman said this was the last time an application was going to be put in and if it didn’t go through, he would have to sell the land. He asked what the people wanted from the site, that is very derelict and run down. Cllr Coslett reminded him that we were only here to discuss the current application.

Some members of the public raised concerns regarding septic tank and environmental issues, proximity to SSSI and the effect on the natural habitat for wildlife.

There was discussion about upgrading the footpath, and providing access to it. Cllr Coslett pointed out that this would be on land they did not own, and the improvements to access, again using land they do not own.

Cllr Coslett also welcomed Wiltshire Cllr Blair-Pilling and asked him if he wanted to address the meeting.

Cllr Blair- Pilling said this application will stand or fall on its merits and he encouraged everyone to put their thoughts on the website.

He said even if you think your comment is not important, the Planners will need to take all comments into consideration.

Cllr Coslett listed some of the main reasons the application had failed before, (PL 2024/07460) was turned down for several reasons including:

Transport during demolition, construction and when in use, extra traffic movements daily (50 mph road on the brow of a hill) visibility when pulling out onto the main road needed to be 160 metres

Noise impacts,

Vision,

Location/siting next to a SSSI, SAC, SPA

Exisiting building dimensions were to be increased due to cladding

Red line of border to property was wrong.

 

The developer/owner are applying again under a revised (Dec 2024) class Q criteria use of Agricultural land.

The Council have several questions and concerns, these were shared with the meeting by Cllr Coslett and include:

• The last change of use for Highview Farm recorded was on the 5/12/01, when it went from redundant use of agricultural to furniture Storage, so cannot be looked at under section Q. The part-owner present mentioned that this applied only to part of the site.
• Access is still not appropriate on the brow of a hill in a busy 50 mph area. Traffic assessment provided was not done at the entrance to the site, but at the part of the road from which the 40mph zone is visible. The data used in the traffic movements assessment was not in a rural location, people in villages rely on their cars more due to poor public transport.
• The developer has stated that they will enhance the footpath into the village – do they own this land? If upgraded to an “all weather” path this would not stop the regular flooding.
• They also said they would move a wall and hedge to make access better for the entrance to the property – do they own this?
• The Wiltshire Council turned the previous application down due to visibility not being 160 metres. The developer has stated that they would improve visibility to 124 and 129 metres, this would still not be enough.
• Drainage – there is no mains drainage, there are concerns of septic tanks overflowing on a very sensitive area with many designations (SSSI, SPA, SAC etc)
• Potential Asbestos – land contamination etc. the Environmental report does not detail what will be done to mitigate and clean this.
• The applicants have said there will be 40 extra traffic movements daily, this cannot be supported due to its rural isolated position there are likely to be more. There are already 5000+ movements daily past the entrance with 130 of them doing over 50 mph recently.
• This development is outside of the village development boundary.
• Accident records are not recent, just recently a lorry came off of the A345 and landed in the field very close to the boundary of this property. This had an adverse effect on the surrounding villages, as the A345 shut for hours, and meant more and heavy traffic through back roads and Upavon.
• Concerns were also spoke about the degree of construction? Would the buildings have substantial change?

 

Cllr Coslett asked if there were any more comments and said NPC would be putting its comments into Wiltshire Council Planning site based on the thoughts from this evening and the recent parish council subcommittee meeting. He thanked everyone for coming and the meeting was closed at 1840.

There was also a display at the back of the room for the public to look at and discuss the details of the application.