Times News

Westbury cautious over housing expansion

2:30pm Sunday 29th January 2012

WESTBURY should be a site for employment growth and infrastructure improvement, according to Wiltshire Council’s Core Strategy proposals.

The document states that the town “has seen significant housing development in the past which has not been matched by an appropriate provision of services, facilities and new jobs”.

It encourages a reduced rate of housing development, focused on the Station Road area, a new mixed-use employment site in Hawkeridge and a new railway crossing to cut traffic on Oldfield Road.

The strategy also advises improving public transport links, and warns that any large retail development in the town would be inappropriate, damaging town centre shops.

A new secondary school, or a move to better premises for Matravers School, are also identified as possibilities, and resolution for the former Lafarge cement works site.

Westbury mayor David Windess expressed cautious support.

“Something certainly needs to be done along Station Road – that area is just a wasteland at the moment – and the town badly needs new housing,” he said.

“Previous applications for the site have been overdeveloped however. It needs to be done tactfully to protect people’s privacy.”

He said the unused areas of the Lafarge site should be returned to a rural state.

Westbury North councillor and chamber of commerce chairman David Jenkins welcomed the prospect of housing development around Station Road.

“We desperately need the housing, but the strategy is correct in saying that as estates in Westbury have expanded, employment hasn’t kept up,” he said.

“I’ve lived here nearly all my life, Westbury has a lot to offer and has fantastic people, we need to work to get new businesses into the town.

“I think that Wiltshire Council is looking at more hi-tech industries than the area is used to, but the industrial estates north of the town are growing too.”

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