Jefferies Land Conservation Trust News

Please write to Eric Pickles MP

2012-01-18T09:13:00.000Z

The Secretary of State will be making his decision known about the Coate planning appeal on of before 3 April 2012. Please write to him now. Email: eric.pickles@communities.gsi.gov.uk Sample letter:

RtHon Eric Pickles

Secretaryof State for Communities & Local Government

ElandHouse

BressendenPlace

LondonSW1E 5DU

DearMr Pickles

Re:Planning Appeal No: APP/U3935/A/11/2155834

Landat Dayhouse Lane, Coate, Swindon.

Yourplanning inspector, Geoffrey Hill, will be completing his report of thePlanning Inquiry held in November 2011. I support Swindon Borough Council'sreasons to refuse planning permission for building on the appeal site and hopethat you will too. The countryside at Coate and Badbury Wick is greatly valuedand significant for many reasons that include the following:

-the landscape setting of Coate Water Country Park and Site of SpecialScientific Interest

-the views from Liddington Hill and the North Wessex Downs Area of OutstandingNatural Beauty

-the recreational value of Dayhouse Lane (a peaceful country lane) for walkers,cyclists, horse-riders and joggers who use it as a gateway to the downs

-the inherent wildlife importance of Dayhouse Copse, ancient trees, hedges, batroosts, badger setts and otter streams

-the literary associations of internationally renowned Richard Jefferies

-the archaeological quality of the area that dates back to pre-history

-the agricultural quality of the land - 22% is grade 2/3a, best and mostversatile farmland

-the views from the Great Western Hospital that help aid recovery.

Over52,000 people signed a petition askingSwindon Council to protect this prized

cornerof Swindon. The environmental, historic and literary value of the appeal sitefar outweighs any benefits that more housing, offices and industrial units canoffer. The planning application provides nothing special. It is not asustainable development, it is premature and will set a precedent for infilldevelopment around Coate Water Country Park.

Pleasedismiss the appeal lodged by Swindon Gateway Partnership.

Thankyou.

Yourssincerely

Times Literary Supplement

2011-12-21T19:48:00.002Z

Adam Thorpe had he following letter published in the Times Literary Supplement dated 9 December 2011

Dear Sir,

I thank all those readers who, following my request (Letters, 15 April), wrote to Swindon Borough Council, objecting to the proposed development of the 75-hectare stretch of fields and woodland abutting the Richard Jefferies Museum, the writer's birthplace and home. This area was one that Jefferies cherished and wrote about in books like Bevis, Amaryllis at the Fair or The Story of My Heart. To everyone's surprise, the proposal for some 900 houses and a business park was turned down in June by the Council's own planning committee on environmental as well as heritage grounds, after some stirring speeches by local people.

The developers, Redrow Homes and Persimmon Homes, having promised to put bat boxes on their houses and so forth, lodged an appeal: this was heard at a week-long inquiry ending on November 23, in which the Jefferies link was mysteriously dropped by the Council as a Reason for Refusal. The planning inspector, the aptly-named Geoffrey Hill, will submit his report to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, who will pronounce before April 3.

Jefferies, arguably the environmental movement’s founding father (Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring, never went anywhere without one of his books), has been consistently devalued by Swindon Council itself, perhaps because they have their own strategy for development; they referred to the site in their planning report as 'the inspiration of Richard Jefries (sic), local Victorian writer'. The Council have asked for no payment to be made to the Museum out of the compensation monies available, to make up for the inevitable drop in visitor numbers once the fields, otter-streams and ancient oak woods are replaced by tarmac, brick and concrete.

Objecting letters should now be sent in serious quantities to The Rt Hon Eric Pickles, Eland House, Bressenden Place, London SW1E 5DU, headed: Appeal: APP/U3935/A/11/2155834/NWF re: Land at Dayhouse Lane, Coate, Swindon and South of Marlborough Road (A4259).

Decision expected by 3 April 2012

2011-11-28T13:44:00.000Z

The inquiry is closed. Mr Geoffrey Hill (not Mr E Grace, as anticipated) has listened to the evidence.

The Secretary of State will make his decision known on or before 3 April 2012.

Planning appeal inquiry information

2011-10-27T08:14:00.000+01:00

The Planning Inquiry commences on Tuesday 15 November at 10am at the STEAM Museum, Swindon. Anyone who wishes to speak should attend that day to register their interest to speak. The Inquiry is set to last 6 days.

The proofs of evidence have now been put on Swindon Council's web site along with all the documents related to this planning application.

The proof for the Jefferies Land Conservation Trust can be downloaded as a pdf document (1.5MB) here.

We hope that the public can find the time to support us and Swindon Council in our efforts to convince the Planning Inspector that he should reject the planning appeal and not recommend that planning permission should be granted.

Please attend the Inquiry even if you do not wish to speak.

Sample letter that might be sent to the Planning Inspector

2011-08-20T19:57:00.002+01:00

Please write by 23 September 2011 and send 3 paper copies or use the facility on
the Planning Inspectorate's web site:

Mr E Grace

Planning Inspector
4/02 Kite Wing

Temple Quay House

2 The Square

Temple Quay

Bristol BS1 6PN

Appeal: APP/U3935/A/11/2155834/NWF

re: Land at Dayhouse Lane, Coate, Swindon and South of Marlborough Road (A4259).

Dear Mr Grace

I/we support Swindon Borough Council's reasons to refuse planning permission for building on the appeal site. The countryside at Coate and Badbury Wick is greatly valued and significant for many reasons that include the following:

- the landscape setting of Coate Water with its buffer of countryside to enhance its wildlife value

- the views from Liddington Hill and the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

- the inherent wildlife importance of Dayhouse Copse, ancient trees, hedges and otter streams

- the literary associations of internationally renowned Richard Jefferies

- the archaeological quality of the area that dates back to pre-history

- the agricultural quality of the land - 22% is grade 2/3a, best and most versatile farmland

- the recreational value of Dayhouse Lane to walkers, cyclists, horse-riders and joggers who use the country lane as a gateway to the downs

- the views from the Great Western Hospital that help aid recovery.

There are over 52,000 signatures on a petition asking Swindon Council to protect this prized area of Swindon, whilst a further 3,000 people have asked for a restoration of the town plan policy that designates the area for its high landscape quality; a policy that was deleted to allow Bath University to build a campus. The promise made by Council was "No university = no houses".

The environmental, historic and literary value of the site far outweighs any benefits that more housing, offices and industrial units can offer. The planning application provides nothing special;it is not a sustainable development and other sites in the Borough are far less sensitive.

Please dismiss the appeal lodged by Swindon Gateway Partnership.

Yours sincerely

Developer's Grounds for Appeal

2011-08-17T08:01:00.000+01:00

Pasted in below are the grounds for appeal cited by Redrow Homes and Persimmon Homes to take their case to planning appeal. The four reasons mentioned relate to those given by Swindon Borough Council for refusing planning permission. Please note that Swindon Borough Council will not be defending Reason 4 at the planning inquiry – the loss of Richard Jefferies literary heritage land – and have dropped this reason for refusal.

Please note that when you write to the planning inspector, you can raise other issues – e.g. the negative impact on archaeology and Day House Copse Nature Reserve (and other wildlife) whose value won’t be improved by setting them in a modern estate, flooding, recreational value of Dayhouse Lane etc.

GROUNDS FOR APPEAL – Swindon Gateway planning application

GENERAL

1. The Council’s decision fails to have proper regard to Government Policy to stimulate growth, the role of Swindon as a growth point and the merits of the site as highly a sustainable location to development when assessed in comparison with other candidate locations in urban extensions.

2. Furthermore, there is an acknowledged shortfall in the five year housing land supply.

Paragraph 71 of PPS3 advises that where there is not a five year land supply, planning

applications for housing should be considered favourably, having regard to the considerations

in paragraph 69, which are met by the Appeal Proposals.

3. The Council’s decision fails to have proper regard to the Secretary of State decision of 5th

August 2009 – PINS Reference: APP/U3935/A/08/2085605 and 2090316. The appeals related to a larger development proposal of which the Appeal Site formed a part. The Appellant will demonstrate that the modified proposals have responded positively, and now satisfy, the key elements of the SoS decision. It will be shown that the LPA seeks to maintain objections to components and details of a scheme which the SoS has previously indicated to be acceptable and/or previous objections which have now been properly and satisfactorily resolved.

4. “Commonhead” is the only non-implemented allocation carried over from the Swindon Borough Local Plan. Its status as a Development Plan allocation has been endorsed by the SoS in the 2009 Appeal decision. Furthermore, the SoS considered the development of the site in terms of its “compliance with the Government’s policies on sustainable development” and found the site to score highly in sustainability terms when assessed in comparison with other candidate locations for urban extensions. Accordingly, the Appellant will demonstrate that the Appeal Site is uniquely placed to provide the necessary continuity in housing land supply.

5. Furthermore, the Appellant will demonstrate how the Appeal Proposal accords with the

commitment to the principle of the development of the site as consistently maintained in the

Proposed Submission Core Strategy, approved for consultation by the LPA in February 2011, and in three previous Core Strategy consultation documents since 2008.

Reason (1)

6. In view of the identification of the Appeal Site in the adopted Local Plan and successive

drafts of the emerging Core Strategy, the Appellant will submit that it would not be premature to grant consent in advance of the adoption of the Core Strategy. PPS3 (para 72) states that LPAs should not refuse applications solely on grounds of prematurity. Furthermore, the LPA have failed to have proper regard to the 2009 SoS decision which accepted “that prematurity need not be an obstacle to granting planning permission.” This is recognised by the professional officers in their recommendation to grant planning permission.

Reason (2)

7. Traffic generated by the Appeal Proposal will be significantly reduced from the 2009 Appeal

Proposals whilst retaining off-site mitigation works as previously agreed with both Swindon

Borough Council and the Highway Agency. The SoS did not raise highways impact as an issue in his decision. The Appellants will demonstrate that the traffic generated by the proposals can be safely and efficiently accommodated on both the local and strategic road networks. Thus, in this respect the LPA’s decision is contrary to agreements with professional officers and statutory consultees as well as the previous SoS decision.

8. The Appellant will demonstrate that the location of the employment land within the proposed master plan would not result in car dominated development nor unacceptable level of severance.

Reason (3)

9. The Appellant will demonstrate that the scale and location of the proposed development

would not have an unacceptable impact on the setting or intrinsic qualities of the North

Wessex Downs AONB. The Scale Parameters Plan for the proposed development has been

modified following negotiations with key consultees so that the employment development

would be entirely two or three storeys, which in conjunction with the layout will provide

an entirely acceptable relationship with the AONB as required and supported by the

professional officers and statutory consultees.

10. Furthermore it will be demonstrated that the LPA decision fails to have regard to the

previous SoS decision on this site in respect of the substantially larger development,

which concluded that “as regards views towards Swindon from Liddington Hill and other

points on the northern slopes of the AONB, the proposal would meet the requirements of

Policy DS3.”

Reason (4)

11. The Appellant will demonstrate that the association of the landscape with the

literary work of Richard Jefferies as a nature writer does not represent a material

planning consideration which justifies withholding planning consent. The Richard

Jefferies Society has held long-standing objection to development in the area and made

representations to both the Local Plan Inquiry (2005) and previous appeal inquiry (2009).

The Appellant will make reference to the conclusions of both Inspectors and the SoS, who

agreed with the 2009 Inspector that “the literary associations of the area with Richard

Jefferies would not justify standing in the way of the development.” The LPA’s decision

does not have proper regard to the advice of the professional officers or the clear

conclusions of the previous SoS decision.

12. The Appellant will make reference to the detailed discussions held with LPA officers

and consultees prior to and following submission of the application. A Planning

Application Process Agreement was agreed by the Director of Planning and Transportation

on the basis that the master plan was considered to be an appropriate response to the SoS

decision and the Draft Core Strategy.

CONCLUSION

13. The Appellant will refer to Government advice (Circular 03/2009) that LPA’s should

show reasonable planning grounds for taking a decision contrary to the advice of

professional officers and should not persist in objections to a scheme which an Inspector

or SoS has previously indicated to be acceptable.

14. The Appellant will demonstrate that the appeal proposals have been prepared so as to

accord with the material provisions of the Development Plan and take forward and deliver

those components of the mixed use urban extension previously supported by the Secretary

of State and resolved all objections previously identified by the SoS. In so doing, the

Appellant will demonstrate that the decision of the Council is unreasonable.

Planning Inquiry to start on 15 November 2011

2011-08-12T10:48:00.002+01:00

The planning inquiry appeal (related to Swindon Borough Council's decision to refuse planning permission for the Swindon Gateway application) will start on 15 November at 10am at STEAM, Swindon. It will run for at least 6 days.

The timetable to submit comments to the planning inspector (see later post) is 23rd September 2011.

For those who also want to submit further evidence at the Inquiry (either oral or written) the deadline is 18 October.

Go to the Planning Inspectorate web page to submit comments and proofs of evidence online.

How a 19th-century naturalist became a cause célèbre in Wiltshire

2011-08-06T10:43:00.000+01:00

There is an excellent article (5 August 2011) in The Independent by Jack Watkins highlighting the lack of appreciation of the literary merits of Richard Jefferies homeland at Coate and the buildong pressures on it.

It can be viewed at: Battle for Jefferies' land

Coate not suitable for housing

2011-08-01T20:25:00.000+01:00

Many of you who objected to the Swindon Gateway planning application will have received a letter from Forward planning inviting you to comment on the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment ‘Call for Sites’.

There is more information at:

http://www.swindon.gov.uk/shlaa

This includes the report that was prepared to identify proposed sites in 2008. The report, of course, includes Coate and you can read what was said about it at:

http://www.swindon.gov.uk/ep/ep-planning/ep-planning-localdev/Documents/old_town_and_lawn-2%5B1%5D.pdf

This “consultation” gives you the opportunity to ask for the entire Swindon Gateway Site (SHLAA 783) to be deleted as well as the Day House Farm sites (SHLAA 780 and 781) from the proposed list of sites to deliver housing.

If you read the “overcoming suitability constraints for the site” you will wonder how Coate was ever proposed for development in the first place! Some of the text from the report is pasted in below.

Please note that it refers to Richard Jefferies (spelt incorrectly) as a LOCAL Victorian Writer. I can’t tell you how many times that we have told the Council that Jefferies’ writing is of national and international importance.

Please respond to this consultation and ask that these particular SHLAA sites are deleted on the grounds that Coate/Badbury Wick is not a sustainable location for development and that no mitigation can be put in place to make this an acceptable site for development.

There is a form that you can download to do this on the main page of the website albeit that it is designed to propose sites not delete them! You’ve got till 23 September to write in.

Extract from Overcoming Suitability Constraints ( Swindon Gateway Entire Site No. 783)

Settlement Boundary

Adjustments were made to extend the Swindon settlement boundary to accommodate the Commonhead allocation as per the Swindon Borough Local Plan. As such the site it is not deemed to fall within the Swindon settlement boundary proper.

Flood Risk Zone

Parts of the site fall within an area of indicative flood risk as highlighted by the Swindon Flood Risk Assessment.

DS3- Mixed use urban extension, Commonhead

The development, as is laid out in policy DS3 of the Swindon Borough Local Plan, is dependant on the provision of not less than 60 hectares of land for a university campus.

ENV2 - Listed Buildings

Listed buildings: 121, 122, 123, 144 would be directly affected by development at the site. Development would be permissible if it were required to preserve the character and setting of the buildings and would not detract from their special interest.

ENV5 - Significant Archaeological Remains (SAMs)

Five designated SAMs fall within the site, containing significant archaeology. Development will be resisted until adequate and satisfactory excavation, recording and, in appropriate cases, conservation of any archaeological remains have been secured.

ENV6 - Archaeological Remains of Lesser Importance

Very high archaeological potential. Development will be resisted until adequate and satisfactory excavation, recording and, in appropriate cases, conservation of any archaeological remains have been secured.

ENV10 - Landscape Character Area

(adjoining)

Landscape Character Area (Midvale Ridge, Scarp). The sheer size of the site and its low-lying topography suggests that there will be huge and unavoidable adverse impact on the adjoining LCA. There will be a requirement to attempt to screen the development with landscaping and tree screening although the effects of this will be limited in mitigating the effects on the LCA.

ENV17 - Local Biodiversity Site

The site contains a Local Biodiversity Site. The sheer size of the development would make it difficult to mitigate any adverse impacts that will occur on the biodiversity of the area. Development of the site would require preliminary biodiversity survey and the identification of any species would have to be replace on at least a pro rata basis. The pursuance of replacement habitat or improvements to existing habitués would be sought.

ENV21 - Potential Strategic Green Corridor

Site is designated as potential strategic green corridor. According to Local Plan 2011 Policy ENV21, those areas identified as constituting barriers in the completion of a Swindon wide strategic green corridor network are identified. If and where development opportunities arise within those areas, the Local Planning Authority shall seek a proportion of the development to be designated as a strategic green corridor to complete the overall network within Swindon.

Impact on Historic Cultural and Built Environment

The site was the inspiration of Richard Jeffries (sic), local Victorian writer. Current public rallying to save this area for this cultural significance.

Access to Public Transport

The nearest bus stop is between 400 and 600 metres away and has been highlighted as a suitability constraint.

Land Status

The land is predominantly greenfield with a few small isolated parcels of previously developed land.

Constraints to Delivery

The site will require significant site clearance.

Compatibility with adjoining uses

The site is adjacent to the Coate Water Country Park and has generated some very strong opposition challenging development around this area. There is housing adjacent to the site, north of Marlborough Road, however this is the only residential development abutting the site. Development would have to take into account the adjoining Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Overcoming Suitability Constraints

Access to Services and Facilities

Distance to employment provision, secondary school, convenience store and district centre has been identified as a potential issue for accessibility. Distance to a primary school has been identified as a concern for accessibility. It should be noted that the mixed-use nature of the site would require employment provision, primary school and convenience store to be provided as part of the development scheme.

Vote for Coate Water as a favourite Green Flag Award venue

2011-07-28T19:23:00.000+01:00

Please vote for Coate Water as a favourite in the Keep Britain Tidy Green Flag award scheme.

Just click on the link below and select "Vote for this site".

http://www.keepbritaintidy.org/GreenFlag/GreenFlagAwardSites/SouthWest/Default.aspx?parkID=447

Coate Water Country Park

About this park/green space

Coate Water is a well used and loved Country Park with a long tradition as a multiuse site for land and water based recreational activities. It’s also well known for its nature conservation pedigree with much of the park being designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest and Local Nature Reserve. Swindon Advertiser readers nominated the Park as the “Best Family Day Out” in The Best of Swindon Awards 2009. With free parking and entry 365 days of the year the site offers a great day out whether visitors want to relax and unwind, or participate in more energetic activities. Walkers, cyclists and horse riders are provided for, both within the park and on routes radiating into the surrounding countryside. In addition “Route 45” forms part of the National Cycle Network linking us with Gloucester and Salisbury. There are a number of provisions to assist with access and mobility, including the “Tramper” mobility vehicle. The parks central focal point is the 19th century reservoir, offering open water and wooded landscape vistas, which also provides visitors with a popular circular walk of around 13/4 miles. The park is intimately linked with the writings of Richard Jefferies, a 19th Century naturalist who was born at Coate, who spent his youth in and around the surrounding countryside. Many of the features and places mentioned in his books can still be found today. We aim to educate, involve and inspire the community through our varied programme of activities and events throughout the year.

Developers appeal

2011-07-07T15:53:00.000+01:00

It was announced today in the Swindon Advertiser that the developers (Redrow Homes & Persimmon Homes) have appealed against Swindon Borough Council's decision to refuse planning permission for their unwelcome application to build houses and industrial units at Coate and Badbury Wick.

The date of the local planning inquiry will be announced once the Secretary of State has appointed a planning inspector.

Planning decision - reasons for refusal

2011-06-28T19:28:00.001+01:00

The reasons for refusing the Coate development planning application have gone up at
http://194.73.99.13:8080/WAM/doc/Decision-332027.pdf?extension=.pdf&id=332027&location=VOLUME5&contentType=&pageCount=1

Quote

1. The proposed development by reason of its substantial scale and location is considered to be so significant to the future growth of the Borough of Swindon when considered against other suitable locations that it will be premature inadvance of the examination and adoption of the Swindon Core Strategy Revised Proposed Submission Document. This document is still under review and neither public consultation nor examination of the issues has yet been completed. The
Council considers that if planning permission were to be granted it would prejudice the outcome of the plan process by predetermining decisions about the appropriateness of the location, the scale and phasing of new development that should properly to be taken in the development plan context. The proposal therefore does not comply with national planning policies PPS1 and PPS3; is contrary to policies DS1, H4 and ENV9 of the Swindon Local Plan 2011 (2006)
and policy DP3 of the Wiltshire and Swindon Structure Plan 2016 (2006).

2. The proposed development by virtue of the increased levels of traffic associated with this mixed use development will have an unacceptable impact on traffic flows on Marlborough Road and Day House Lane compromising highway safety. Furthermore the location of the employment land, its sole vehicular access via the spine road/boulevard and expected weight of traffic within the site will result in a car dominated development and unacceptable level of severance to the detriment of residential amenity. The proposal is therefore contrary to national guidance in Manual for Streets 1 and 2 and policies DS6 and DS7 of the Swindon Borough Local Plan 2011 (2006).

3. The proposed development by virtue of its scale and location will have an unacceptable impact on the setting and intrinsic qualities of part of the adjacent North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in that the proposed mixed use development, some of which may be up to four storeys in height will fail to maintain an attractive and sympathetic vista from the Downs and a foreground that softens the urban edge of Swindon, or demonstrate that the intrinsic qualities of the AONB can be sufficiently protected. The proposal is therefore contrary to Planning Policy Statement 7, and fails to comply with policies DS6 and ENV10 of the Swindon Borough Local Plan 2011(2006)

4. The proposal by virtue of its scale and setting fails to satisfactorily consider in any detail the importance of the surrounding landscape as a heritage asset. The literary work of Richard Jefferies as a nature writer is significant in understanding the landscape of the Coate and Badbury Wick areas together with their relationship with the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and conversely the appreciation of his own work. If approved, this development will have a detrimental effect on this intrinsic historic value and importance, and
would in this respect be harmful to the visual amenity of the area as a whole. The proposal fails to comply with policies HE6, HE7, HE9, HE10, and of PPS5 and policies DS6 and ENV10, of the Swindon Borough Local Plan 2011 (2006) .

The developers have still got 6 months to appeal and we still have an emerging policy in the Swindon Core Strategy for "Commonhead" to chuck out.

Will Persimmon Homes appeal after all?

2011-06-11T07:16:00.000+01:00

In a quote from Paul Davis of Persimmon Homes, printed in the Swindon Advertiser on 10 June, a shadow of doubt has been cast as to whether the developers will appeal against the decision to refuse planning permission.
http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/9077584.High_stakes_in_the_battle_for_Coate/

Paul Davis is reported as saying:

“We’re considering our options. We’ve not made up our minds what we’re going to do yet. It’s not known when we’ll come to a decision. When we do we’ll let everyone know. But we’re not there yet.”
He said an appeal seemed ‘the obvious riposte’, but added: “We could put a new application and start again. I’m not saying that’s a possibility because honestly we haven’t decided yet.
“Or we could say we’ve spent so much money on this we’ll just throw in the towel.
“It’s a possibility; we have to work within our own financial guidelines. All things are being considered.”

Please urge Persimmon Homes to go for the option to “just throw in the towel.”

paul.davis@persimmonhomes.com

Planning permission refused

2011-06-09T22:53:00.000+01:00

After a long discussion with some tremendous speeches made by the public and some unexpected contributions from councillors, it was moved by Cllr Junab Ali, seconded by Cllr Fionuala Foley, that planning permission should be refused. The vote was 9-2 with the majority of the planning committee members voting for refusal.

The members were placed under a lot of pressure to vote through the planning application, but they stood firm.

The main reasons given to refuse include traffic and transport matters, sustainability matters, impact on views from the North Wessex Downs AONB, heritage (ie Richard Jefferies) value, public opinion etc.

WELL DONE EVERYONE!!!

The developers will appeal.

It is now important that policy NC3 is thrown out of the emerging Swindon Core Strategy.

Jefferies Land Conservation Trust call for right to challenge plans for Coate

2011-06-03T10:39:00.000+01:00

The Jefferies Land Conservation Trust is calling on Swindon Borough Council to throw out the planning proposals for Coate at their planning committee meeting on Tuesday 7 June on the grounds that the blueprint for planning the town’s future has not been agreed through the development plan process.

On top of the 52,000 petition that calls for no development at Coate the Trust has raised a new petition that has attracted nearly 3,000 signatures in response to the Core Strategy consultation that does not finish until 16 June. It states:

We, the undersigned, petition Swindon Borough Council to designate the open countryside between the A419, the Marlborough Road, the motorway and Broome Manor Lane as a high quality Landscape Character Area in order to protect the landscape setting of Coate Water Country Park, Dayhouse Copse Local Nature Reserve, the natural and archaeological history, as well as the literary importance of Jefferies Land and the views from the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Jean Saunders, honorary secretary of the Jefferies Land Conservation Trust said:

“If we are forced to give up more of Jefferies Land to development, we would like the opportunity to debate what scale and design of development might be acceptable under the emerging ‘Commonhead’ policy. A high landscape protection policy for the area won’t stop all development but we can insist on something special, linked to the function of the hospital, but of a traditional layout similar to Hodson village. Up until the university proposals came along, the landscape was protected in the town plan.”

Mrs Saunders added:

“If Swindon Borough Council is really serious about involving communities in how they shape their town then it is vital that they take on board public criticism of the current planning application and the proposed policy in the Swindon Core Strategy. If planning permission is allowed next week, we will be denied the right to challenge the scale, location, design and layout of any development. This is undemocratic and unfair.”

Swindon Council’s Planning Committee meet in the Council Chamber at 6pm on Tuesday 7 June to decide the fate of Redrow Homes and Persimmon Homes planning application to build nearly 900 houses on countryside east of Day House Lane and a large industrial site to the west of the country lane.

Swindon Council planning committee 7 June 2011

2011-06-01T19:54:00.000+01:00

The Swindon Gateway planning application comes up before the planning committee on Tuesday 7 June 2011 - meeting starts at 6pm in the Council Chamber, Civic Offices, Euclid Street Swindon.

More information under Agenda Item 6 at this link

Once again the planning officer recommendation is to approve planning permission despite the fact that the consultation for the Swindon Core Strategy doesn't even finish until 16 June.

There is no urgency to allow this planning application to go through. According to the new housing needs figures coming through the Core Strategy, there is an available supply of land on which to build houses for the next 5.64 years.

Please write to the new members of the planning committee before the Tuesday meeting. There is only one councillor who cannot be contacted by e-mail.

dale@covinghamandnytheintouch.com ; jbswin@yahoo.co.uk ; vtomlinson@swindon.gov.uk ; junab@hotmail.co.uk ; aalbinson@swindon.gov.uk ; sra@nerc.ac.uk ; pauljbaker@ntlworld.com ; ddart@swindon.gov.uk ; ffoley@freenetname.co.uk ; brian.ford@absolutely-independent.co.uk ; clovell@swindon.gov.uk ; moredon.millin@gmail.com ; nicky@swindonlibdems.org ; cllrkevin.parry@ntlworld.com ; d.wren1@ntlworld.com

Please attend the planning meeting and if you would like to speak, register with Iain Tucker.

Planning Committee
Tuesday, 7th June, 2011 6.00 p.m.

Venue: Council Chamber, Civic Offices.
Contact: Iain Tucker (Telephone 01793 463605) email: itucker@swindon.gov.uk

Trees to be axed

2011-04-21T19:50:00.001+01:00

According to the planning application, there are 172 trees in the proposed development area and a massive 72 of them will be axed. Of the 90 mature trees on site, 22 will go. It is bad enough to lose so many trees that have taken hundreds of years to go, but why are trees to be felled that don't appear to be where buildings or roads are planned? Here are some examples along Day House Lane:

Willow?

A group of eight trees is to be removed (opposite the house called the Oaks) for no apparent reason.

Vote for Coate

2011-04-05T19:23:00.000+01:00

A Vote for Coate campaign is being launched by the Save Coate coalition in order to find out where candidates stand on the Coate development proposals and to make this a major issue for the 5 May elections. The full list of candidates for the wards of Swindon Borough Council along with their addresses (no e-mail addresses supplied) has just been put up at the following url as a downloadable pdf file:

http://swindon.gov.uk/statementofpersonsnominated2011borough.pdf

We shall be writing to them all and any responses will be put up on a dedicated website http://voteforcoate.org/

You can help. If you see any election campaign material that refers to the Coate development proposals, please let us know. We will set up a contact e-mail address for this purpose. If you live in Swindon, please would you write to all of the candidates in your ward and get their views. Again, let us know how they reply.

Say NO to Swindon Core Strategy to allow 900 houses at Coate

2011-04-01T15:00:00.002+01:00

The Swindon Core Strategy is now out for public consultation until 6pm on 16 June 2011. Despite all our previous efforts, Swindon Council has increased the housing allowance for Coate and Badbury Wick to 900. The industrial/warehouse/office site is still huge (15 hectares) and will be part of a "new landmark gateway to Swindon from the M4". What picture does that conjure up for protecting this precious landscape? The proposal map is reproduced below - click on the picture to see it in full.

You can download a response form to policy NC3 by clicking here and using the suggested text to make your own comments. There is a freepost address given on the form for submitting your responses.

Please write and ask anyone who cares about Jefferies Land to do the same.

Please sign new petition to designate landscape

2011-03-11T16:26:00.002Z

PROTECT SETTING OF COATE WATER AND JEFFERIES LAND

We, the undersigned, petition Swindon Borough Council to designate the open countryside between the A419, the Marlborough Road, the motorway and Broome Manor Lane as a high quality Landscape Character Area in order to protect the landscape setting of Coate Water Country Park, Dayhouse Copse Local Nature Reserve, the natural and archaeological history, as well as the literary importance of Jefferies Land and the views from the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Click here to sign http://www.petitiononline.com/coate/petition.html

Planning application decision deferred

2011-03-11T07:33:00.000Z

The Council Chamber was packed and the overflows of protestors were put in another room with video link. The Labour and Lib Dem councillors on the planning committee wanted the planning application to be refused. However further debate led to a motion by the Conservative group to defer making a decision. Councillor Heenan (Conservative) said that we need more time to establish good planning grounds to refuse planning permission in order to put a successful argument to any planning appeal. The issue of the "safe" buffer was a key issue for councillors. None were convinced that it would be protected in perpetuity.

So the result is good - but there is still an emerging policy that supports the development area in the Swindon Core Strategy that must be deleted. The document will be out for public consultation in April.

The cynics say that the delay is just a ploy by the Conservatives to leave making a decision until after the elections in May.

We shall see...

Tuesday 8 March at 6pm - Swindon Civic Offices - be there!

2011-03-02T19:13:00.001Z

The date that the planning committee meet to decide the outcome of the planning application for Coate is confirmed as Tuesday 8 March starting at 6pm in the Council Chamber, Civic Offices, Euclid Street, Swindon and if you care about Coate's future, please attend.

The planning officer’s report recommends that planning permission be granted and ignores all our concerns. You can read more under Agenda Item 6:

http://ww5.swindon.gov.uk/moderngov/ieListDocuments.aspx?MId=4363&J=1

You can ask to speak at the meeting by contacting Iain Tucker (Telephone 01793 463605) email: itucker@swindon.gov.uk

Could you also consider writing to the planning committee members on e-mail listed below:

"Colin Lovell" <clovell@swindon.gov.uk>,
"Junab Ali" <junab@hotmail.co.uk>,
"Andy Albinson" <aalbinson@swindon.gov.uk>,
"John Ballman" <jbswin@yahoo.co.uk>,
"Sinead Darker" <sdarker@swindon.gov.uk>,
"Mark Dempsey" <mark@markdempsey.org.uk>,
"Dale Heenan" <dale@covinghamandnytheintouch.com>,
"Jennifer Millin" <moredon.millin@gmail.com>,
"Anthony Peake" <ajlpeake@gmail.com>,
"Eric Shaw" <ericshaw1937@btinternet.com>,
"John Short" <jfshort@hotmail.co.uk>,
"Kevin Parry" <cllrkevin.parry@ntlworld.com>,
"Martin Wiltshire" <martin@swindonlibdems.org>

Thanks

Please write to Swindon Council's Planning Committee now

2011-02-05T11:28:00.001Z

PLANNING COMMITTEE MEMBERS

The likely date for the planning committee to meet to decide the planning application is 8 March 2011. Please write to the following before then.

The May elections might alter the fate of four of them: Andy Albinson (Tory), John Ballman (Labour), Jennifer Millin (Labour) & Martin Wiltshire (Lib Dem) who may or may not stand for election again.

Email addresses for Planning Committee Members. Doreen Dart, Steve Allsopp and Vera Tomlinson are not on e-mail. Letters can be addressed to them at Swindon Borough Council, Civic Offices, Euclid Street, Swindon SN1 2 JH.

Colin Lovell is Chairman and Vera Tomlinson is Vice-Chair.

"Colin Lovell" <clovell@swindon.gov.uk>,
"Junab Ali" <junab@hotmail.co.uk>,
"Andy Albinson" <aalbinson@swindon.gov.uk>,
"John Ballman" <jbswin@yahoo.co.uk>,
"Sinead Darker" <sdarker@swindon.gov.uk>,
"Mark Dempsey" <mark@markdempsey.org.uk>,
"Dale Heenan" <dale@covinghamandnytheintouch.com>,
"Jennifer Millin" <moredon.millin@gmail.com>,
"Anthony Peake" <ajlpeake@gmail.com>,
"Eric Shaw" <ericshaw1937@btinternet.com>,
"John Short" <jfshort@hotmail.co.uk>,
"Kevin Parry" <cllrkevin.parry@ntlworld.com>,
"Martin Wiltshire" <martin@swindonlibdems.org>

Dear Councillor

Revised Planning Application for Coate – Ref. No. S/10/0842

Past history has shown that if you open up the Coate, Badbury Wick & Commonhead countryside to development, future councillors will not be able to stop the inevitable spread of more buildings on the fields that surround Coate Water. You all know what Redrow Homes and Persimmon Homes have in store for these fields – please don’t give in to them.

Over 52,000 people have expressed their concerns about these proposals and wish to see the countryside between Coate Water and the A419/M4 protected against further development for a variety of reasons that include its significant heritage (archaeological and literary) value, the intrinsic wildlife value of Dayhouse Copse Local Nature Reserve at its centre, the recreational value of Dayhouse Lane, the rural landscape setting of Coate Water and the views from the Downs, and the ultimate knock-on effect on Coate Water’s special ecology.

At the very least I ask that you vote for a site visit in order that you can view the application area from Liddington Hill, from Coate Water and from Dayhouse lane before making a decision.

Please listen to the people and refuse planning permission.

Open letter to Swindon Council's planning committee

2011-01-30T08:00:00.001Z

To All Planning Committee Members

Dear Councillor

We beg your indulgence to clarify a few matters related to the planning application for mixed use development on land east of Dayhouse Lane and for a business park on Green Hill, west of Dayhouse Lane.

1. Whilst the planning inspector (who conducted the appeal that led to the refusal of planning permission for the previous planning application for the university) agreed that some development of the area might be permitted, the scale, nature and location was never discussed. You might remember the result of the planning application appeal for the Coate business park that took in 186 ha of land. Only 28.4 ha of this would have been used for buildings, road-building and car-parking. The remainder was proposed for landscaping and a golf course; but in February 1989 planning permission was still refused by the Rt Hon Nicholas Ridley, Secretary of State for the Environment who was not known for protecting greenfield sites!

2. The evidence base that Swindon Borough Council quote in bringing forward the proposed Swindon Core Strategy policy for “Commonhead” is assessed on the land area that extends from Broome Manor Lane to the A419 (i.e. Coate, Broome and Badbury Wick). There has been no assessment as to whether the land use put forward in the Swindon Core Strategy and in the planning application would provide a sustainable development. Just look at the shape of it for a start!

3. It has been suggested that the Save Coate petition that has drawn over 52,000 signatures only counts against the former planning application. This is patently untrue as the petition is worded as an objection to a change of use of the land in question.

4. The public has not had an opportunity to challenge the emerging Swindon Core Strategy policy for “Commonhead” through public inquiry and planning permission should not be granted for the planning application before this democratic process is played through.

5. It seems that the planning application might be determined at your meeting dated 8 March. Please would you, at least, defer a decision by visiting the site, viewing it from Liddington Hill, Coate Water and Day House Lane in an attempt to picture how the proposed development might appear in the countryside. Please would you also take the trouble to learn why the landscape is of major literary importance to Richard Jefferies and how, with a little imagination, the historic Neolithic associations and the literary links can only add to educational/recreational opportunities in the future. Please remember that Swindonians don’t have to go far to walk in a housing estate or business park! Leave them something special...

You all know that you (or future councillors) won’t be able to protect the countryside around Coate Water unless the buffer land is donated to the people and designated as part of the Country Park. If the developers were prepared to give the private land east and south of Coate Water CP to the University of Bath and then to UWE – put a condition in place that if they are given planning permission, they must give this land to Swindon Borough Council to expand the Country Park. It’s the least you can do.

Thank you.

Richard Jefferies Society and the Jefferies Land Conservation Trust

Can't Touch Coate!

2011-01-21T07:22:00.002Z

We now have an anthem based on a song by M C Hammer and a BBC Wiltshire Radio interview with Councillor Peter Greenhalgh (Pogo) cleverly put together by Geoff Reid.

Download, listen and laugh by finding the Pogo Rap at the link below.

The Pogo Rap - (Can't Touch Coate If It's Under Concrete - 2011 Mix)

Say NO to draft Swindon policy to build on land at Coate and Badbury Wick

2011-01-16T11:49:00.000Z

Here follows an open letter to Swindon Council's Cabinet members:

Dear Cabinet Member

At your Cabinet meeting, to be held this Wednesday [19 January 2011], you will be asked to recommend and endorse to Council the approval of the Revised Proposed Submission Document for the Swindon Core Strategy along with its accompanying land-use policies before it goes out for a period of public consultation.

One of the key themes in the draft document is “to promote local pride ... and community identity” expressed in emerging Swindon Core Strategy policy CT6 that Council should ensure “that decision making is transparent” and to “effectively communicate how the local community has influenced the decision”.

Please could I request that you look very closely at the proposed policy NC3 for “Commonhead” as this will now be given considerable weight when the revised planning application is determined. You should be aware that none of our objections to the former emerging Swindon Core Strategy policy SSP7 nor our suggested change to the policy for “Commonhead” has been accepted, despite the fact that more people objected to this policy than to any other part of the Core Strategy. This is without taking account of over 52,000 people who signed the Save Coate petition that opposed a change of land-use for the area in question.

The Council has done nothing to explain why our views have been ignored. Instead we are presented with a revised land-use policy for “Commonhead” that increases the housing allocation from 750 houses to 900, includes 15 hectares of B-use employment land (anything from offices to industrial use) that is not directly related to the function of the hospital (i.e. not a sustainable proposition from a transport perspective – the former proposal was to link 14 ha of employment land to the university to reduce the need to travel) and an objective “To create a new landmark gateway to Swindon from the M4”. By the latter, one can assume that the design principle is not to attempt to blend the buildings in the countryside respecting the views from Coate Water Country Park and the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty but to make it stick out like a sore thumb.

The policy states that “The area between Coate Water and the new development will be protected” but there are no guarantees. The Council does not own the land and it has broken similar promises before that we do not need to list. We all know that this policy will only lead to infill development extending to Broome Manor. Persimmon Homes and Redrow Homes still retain options on the majority of this land – they will not stop.

Once again Richard Jefferies’ literary landscape heritage is ignored. Instead of being the butt of all jokes that Swindon is a cultural desert, the Council should be taking advantage of the fact that an author, born and raised at Coate and who has been voted as Britain’s favourite nature writer, wrote with such beauty and detail about this landscape in his works.

Please give the people of Swindon something that they can be proud of at last. Please do not follow the officer’s recommendation that the Core Strategy goes out with its current wording.

Jean Saunders

On behalf of the Save Coate coalition.

Councillor Greenhalgh has strange ideas about development

2011-01-01T10:31:00.002Z

Councillor Peter Greenhalgh (Cabinet Member for strategic planning) made some outrageous statements about the revised planning application that were published in the New Year's Eve edition of the Swindon Advertiser.

Please write to Swindon Borough Council's planning department to voice your concern by 25th January 2011 at the latest. The planning application will either be decided by Swindon Council's planning committee at their meeting dated 8 February or 8 March at the latest.

A sample letter follows:

Ian Halsall

Planning Officer

Swindon Borough Council

Wat Tyler House

Beckhampton Street

Swindon, SN1 2JH

Dear Mr Halsall

Revised Planning Application for Coate – Ref. No. S/10/0842

I have looked at the recent revision to the planning application submitted by Redrow Homes and Persimmon Homes to develop countryside at Coate and Badbury Wick. The minor tinkering with the proposals has done nothing to allay my concern that it is unacceptable development in its own right by virtue of the nature, scale, layout and location of the buildings. It will still set a precedent for infill houses and offices to be built on fields between the application area and Broome Manor. The majority of the business park area is still on the Coate Water side of Dayhouse Lane whilst some of the houses and the school also open out onto Dayhouse Lane. This is not a contained and isolated design that will discourage further growth.

On being questioned about the revised planning application, Councillor Greenhalgh was quoted in the Swindon Advertiser on New Year’s Eve as saying: ‘This proposal is the best one I think that has been put forward for this general area ... I think this development will protect the character of Coate Water and should prevent building between this land and Coate itself.’ How does opening up an area that has been protected from housing and office development since about the 1950s suddenly act as a stop for more of the same? It will clearly have the opposite effect that will be encouraged by the land-owners of the fields around Coate Water who have been waiting to sell their land to developers since the Science Park proposals over 25 years ago. Indeed that building proposal was far less intrusive in the environment – yet Swindon Council was opposed to it and so was the Secretary of State. Redrow Homes and Persimmon Homes still have legal options to buy these fields if planning permission is granted.

Swindon Borough Council has proved that it can’t be trusted to keep any promises – first the hospital – that was to be a one-off building complex for the area between Coate Water and the A419/M4; then the university with the promise that if the university wasn’t built, there would be no housing and now this statement from Councillor Greenhalgh (the senior cabinet Member for strategic planning) who is clearly in favour of the latest plans.

Over 52,000 people have expressed their concerns and wish to see the countryside between Coate Water and the A419/M4 protected against further development. Please listen to the people and refuse planning permission.

Open letter to Swindon Borough Council

2010-12-30T11:11:00.006Z

To: Ian Halsall, Planning Officer, Swindon Borough Council, Wat Tyler House, Beckhampton Street, Swindon, SN1 2JH

Revised Planning Application No. S/10/0842

Dear Mr Halsall

We maintain our objection to the revised planning application submitted by Redrow Homes and Persimmon Homes on 24 December 2010 along with the 52,000 good citizens who signed the petition urging Swindon Borough Council to protect a kilometre buffer of countryside around Coate Water from further development.

This planning application is not of national importance whereas the application area, although not designated as such, is of national importance as a result of its unique literary and archaeological heritage and it lies in an area that would have been included in the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty but for the intrusion of the motorway. These foothills to the downs soften the edges of Swindon and play an important role for the setting of Coate Water Country Park and provide additional habitats to support, encourage and enhance Coate Water Site of Special Scientific Interest, designated for its wildlife value. Dayhouse Lane in its own right is of immense recreational value bringing a small area of countryside within easy reach of Swindonians; whilst, at its centre, it boasts its own Local Nature Reserve – Day House Copse.

As such it is a well-known tenet of planning law that if you have to rely on conditions and Section 106 agreements to make an unacceptable planning application acceptable, then planning permission should be refused.

Making some reductions to the number, height and density of buildings and planting a few more trees does not make an unacceptable planning application acceptable.

On three separate occasions over the last 5 years, the Jefferies Land Conservation Trust has made approaches to the owners of Day House farm with a view to buying the field that borders the eastern edge of Coate Water Country Park to put it into wildlife conservation use. On all three occasions the Trust has been refused. Given that the latest approach was made recently and the field of interest is outside the application area, we can only assume that this field is still likely to be the next target for development. As such, if planning permission is granted for this proposal, it will set a very strong precedent for further development of houses and offices around Coate Water Country Park and will encourage infill between Day House Lane and Broome Manor Lane in order to better integrate the area with Swindon. This is a major material consideration.

Swindon Borough Council claimed that the new hospital would not set a precedent for more development of the area and that if no university was built at Coate, there would be no housing. Yet the Council is also promoting this site for housing and employment land. As such we cannot trust the Council to protect any buffer land around Coate Water Country Park and it is down to the good people of Swindon to do so.

revised planning application for Coate now in

2010-12-27T13:32:00.004Z

Redrow Homes and Persimmon Homes presented a revised planning application to Swindon Borough Council just before Christmas. The Swindon Gateway Partnership proposes to use countryside at Coate mainly to build up to 890 new houses and offices mostly to the east of Day House Lane. The fields immediately next to Coate Water Country Park are not directly affected but judging by the look of the hospital, the views from Coate Water and the downs will be.

Swindon Council’s promises that the hospital building would be a one-off and, if the university wasn’t built at Coate, there would be no houses, have proved to be short-lived. There are no guarantees in place that, if this planning application is allowed, the fields around Coate Water won’t be targeted for development next. We all know that this will be the next step and that over 52,000 names on a petition urging the Council to protect the land around Coate Water means nothing. So much for democracy.

You can look at the plans (Ref No. s/10/0842) in the Council’s Offices at Wat Tyler House and should you wish to comment, write to Ian Halsall in the planning department. Some of the documents, including the illustrative master plan above, are up on the Council's web site

latest on the Swindon Gateway planning application

2010-11-23T08:10:00.005Z

Objections to the planning application for 960 houses etc have been lodged by Natural England, the Environment Agency, Wiltshire Wildlife Trust and CABE (Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment). About 100 objectors have submitted comments in all.

The CABE response has been put up on SBC’s planning portal - essentially they object that the proposed layout and design is poor

http://194.73.99.13:8080/WAM/doc/Other-299365.pdf?extension=.pdf&id=299365&location=VOLUME5&contentType=&pageCount=1

If this doesn't work, go to http://195.89.201.121/PublicAccess77/tdc/DcApplication/application_detailview.aspx?caseno=L34F9GPT04V00 and look in the folders.

The response from Natural England is pretty strong as they now have the remit to cover landscape matters (i.e. development that has an impact on the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) as well as conservation issues related to Coate Water Site of Special Scientific Interest. They are highly critical of the likely impact of the development on views from Liddington Hill and the Downs; they have concerns about the height of buildings, loss of mature trees, and the lack of information in the planning application as to what the development would look like. Least of all, Richard Jefferies is actually mentioned – at last!!! It says: “The significance of cultural associations with Richard Jefferies are under-estimated; it was the landscape in the vicinity that prompted much of his work, and much of that work was related to envisioning a future, changing environment (notably ‘After London’).”

With regard the potential impact on Coate Water, the main objection relates to the impact of development on the D-shaped field that is not within the country park and is outside the planning application area. This field is lovely and boggy (it is part of Day House farm) and is much used by over-wintering and breeding birds. Those who know it will be aware that there is a footpath that runs through the middle that attracts very few visitors. Natural England makes much of the fact that this field and footpath would become a major corridor for dog-walkers etc (as the other main footpaths run alongside the M4) whilst their concerns about cat predation is flagged up as a major concern.

Other objections are raised by them and others.

Evidently a revised planning application is to be submitted to Swindon Borough Council soon. It is expected that the housing numbers will be reduced from 960 to 890 along with other proposals that include a reduction in density and the height of buildings and to take out the landfill area from the development area.

Save Coate again!

2010-06-13T11:53:00.001+01:00

The Jefferies Land Conservation Trust takes heart from the news released on 4 June that the Rt Hon Eric Pickles (Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government) has written to all councils to let them know that they can make planning decisions in the knowledge that ‘regional strategies’ will soon be history. The Minister is quoted as saying:

“It will no longer be possible to concrete over large swathes of the country without any regard to what local people want.”

Over 52,000 people, who signed the Save Coate petition, made it clear that the land between Coate Water and the new hospital should not be concreted over. The people have already decided.

After promises from Swindon Council that this land would be protected from development if the hospital got the go-ahead and, more recently, that if the university plans failed at Coate, there would be no houses, we are now faced with a new planning application (see overleaf) for nearly one thousand houses, offices and shops on the fields located mainly east of Day House Lane. The majority of the buildings proposed are 3-4 storeys high. They won’t sit quietly in the countryside without sticking out like a sore thumb; the hospital is already a blot on the views from Richard Jefferies’ beloved Liddington Hill and Coate Water that are immortalised in his writing.

Whilst the new proposals, unlike the last ones, do not extend to the edge of Coate Water Country Park, it won’t be long before Redrow Homes and Persimmon Homes apply to build on these fields too. If this site falls to the house-builders, it will set a precedent for more of the same.

We can’t trust the Council to safeguard the fields next to Coate Water no matter what they promise.

Please help to preserve Swindon’s best literary and historical heritage and to ensure that Coate Water remains a country park for wildlife and people by writing now to Ian Halsall, Planning Officer, Swindon Borough Council, Wat Tyler House, Beckhampton Street, Swindon SN1 2JH and object to planning application S/10/0842.

New building plans for Coate

2010-06-04T08:21:00.002+01:00

Some news to report, at last – but you will have to wait until next week (Monday?) for confirmation – and it is not going to be good news. Redrow Homes and Persimmon Homes have submitted their new planning application to Swindon Borough Council for nearly 1,000 houses etc. at Coate/Badbury Wick. Assume that it will be the same as that proposed at the developers’ exhibition held earlier this year (see previous blog) and will take in land mainly east of Day House Lane.

There has been no response from the Horton family (owners of Day House Farm) with regard to our (Jefferies Land Conservation Trust) offer to buy their large field that hugs the eastern edge of Coate Water Country Park and extends to Day House lane. The Trust want to put the field to conservation use – a wildflower meadow – and Richard Jefferies’ fans will be aware that this field included names such as “Green Fern” and “The Plain” which featured in Greene Ferne Farm and Bevis. Redrow Homes has an option to buy this field from the Hortons if planning permission is granted for development. Okay, so this field might not be included in the new proposals, but development east of Day House lane will set a precedent for more development across the road. This field is not protected from development apart from small areas of it that are of significant archaeological interest. Swindon Borough Council would like this field to be included in Coate Water Country Park, but neither the Hortons nor the developers are going to hand it over!

The emerging Swindon Core Strategy (that includes a draft land-use policy for the proposed development area for 750 houses etc) is on hold. Local Planning Authorities throughout the country are not sure how to progress their forward planning programmes as the new Government has vowed to get rid of the regional tiers for planning. The so-called Regional Spatial Strategy that was setting house-building targets to 2025 is also frozen which means that developers are likely to submit a flurry of planning applications in the hope that they can force through their particular building programmes.

Swindon is likely to be hit badly by this as different developers are targeting greenfield sites all around the town as you may have read in the papers.

It is vital that everyone objects again to the new planning application for Coate – previous objections will not count. The Save Coate petition with its 52,000 signatures will still add weight as it was worded to take account of future building programmes for the area.

Watch this space for more news.

Tell Redrow Homes & Persimmon Homes what you think about their new proposals

2010-01-27T12:59:00.002Z

Redrow Homes & Persimmon Homes new proposals for development at Coate/Badbury Wick/Commonhead - January 2010
The national house-builders revealed their new proposals for development at an exhibition in Swindon on 22nd January. They have asked for your comment! The closing date for your thoughts is 29th January but as this is not an official consultation, it is still worth writing to them at FREEPOST RLUC-EZKA-BHS, CONSENSUS, 93 Walton Road, Clevedon, BS21 6AW or e-mail consensus@hotmail.co.uk.

Points you might make:

The development would set a precedent for further development west of Day House Lane – the developers still have options to buy this land and appear to have no intention to relinquish this legal right. As such, you would object to any development of the land.

The southern end of Day House Lane is proposed for widening to feed a large employment area. This would remove the rural tranquillity of the country lane much used for recreational purposes – cycling, jogging, horse-riding, walking, rambling and it is the first rural leg of the yearly half-marathon.

The main badger route from Day House Copse to Coate Water will be blocked by a school. The otter stream runs through the employment zone. The impact on wild-life in general is not acceptable.

There is insufficient space to allow for hospital growth – 5.5 ha is clearly insufficient for Swindon’s projected growth to accommodate another 46,000 new homes by 2025.

The proximity of the development area to the M4 motorway and A419 trunk road is likely to result in high levels of out-commuting – this can only be overcome by linking the housing to the hospital.

The topography of the land is undulating and very visible from the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (particularly from Liddington Hill) as well as from Coate Water (the hospital is extremely visible from both view-points). Any development will detract from the natural beauty of the area and there should be no buildings higher than two storeys.

The Marlborough Road is already running to capacity, it is a very busy dual-carriageway with few crossing places – any further traffic would compromise safety and environmental credentials.

The local facilities proposed will not deter out-commuting. The nearest secondary school is at Dorcan and the closest existing primary school/ shops/ community centre etc are not within a comfortable walking distance. The development area is ‘remote’ from the rest of Swindon and is not a sustainable location.

This is an ancient area, crammed full of features from pre-history – any development would be unsympathetic to the surroundings – a modern development, in particular, would not be acceptable.

This is Jefferies Land – associated with the writings of the Victorian author, Richard Jefferies. His former birthplace and home is on the edge of the development, whilst his wife grew up at Day House Farm. The landscape features heavily in the majority of his works and is of immense literary, environmental and educational value.

RE-SCHEDULED EXHIBITION BY HOUSE-BUILDERS

2010-01-16T16:18:00.003Z

Persimmon Homes and Redrow Homes will now be showing their plans for 960 houses etc at an exhibition on Friday 22 January 2010 from 1-7pm at Park South Community Hall, Cranmore Avenue, Swindon.

Click on the picture to enlarge.

House builders' exhibition 7 January

2009-12-30T11:09:00.003Z

Redrow Homes and Persimmon Homes, the developers behind the Coate development proposals, are holding an exhibition of their new plans for the Coate/Badbury Wick/Commonhead area before submitting a new planning application to Swindon Borough Council.

The exhibition is open to the public on Thursday 7 January between 1-7pm at Park South Community Centre, Cranmore Avenue, Swindon SN3 2EE.

Go along and see what ghastly offering is now proposed in the name of progress.

Proposed Extension to Coate Water Country Park

2009-12-05T15:56:00.002Z

Planning application turned down by Secretary of State

2009-08-06T11:40:00.002+01:00

Not just good news but fantastic news!

On 6 August John Denham, the Secretary of State for Communities, announced that he supported the planning inspector’s decision that planning permission should be refused for 1800 houses, employment land, university campus etc. at Coate. Unlike Swindon Borough Council who did not fight the appeal on the grounds that the views from Coate Water would be unacceptable if the building work was allowed, the Inspector and John Denham did not accept this. John Denham says: “the proposed form of development would seriously damage the views from the east and west shores of the Country Park, with corresponding harm to the enjoyment of visitors. In particular, he agrees with the Inspector that the effect of residential development, even if limited to two storeys, would be unacceptably intrusive and harmful to the experience of the Country Park.”

Hurrah!

However Swindon Borough Council is still pressing ahead with proposals for a smaller development east of Day House Lane. (see the previous posting).

All the documentation is available at the council offices in Station Road or it can be downloaded here:

http://www.swindon.gov.uk/environment/environment-forward/environment-forward-localdevelopmentframework/corestrategy.htm

The development area includes fields of significant archaeological importance and encloses Day House Copse, a local nature reserve. There is still no over-riding policy proposed that would secure the protection of the proposed buffer around Coate Water – the land needs to be designated as high landscape by virtue of its historic, literary & amenity value. Please object to the inclusion of Policy SSP7 in the Swindon Core Strategy.

Say that the Core Strategy is not legally compliant as SBC has ignored the advice in the Government White Paper “Communities in Control: Real Power, Real People” (9 July 2008). There is no point going through two previous consultation exercises in preparation of the strategy and then ignoring the majority view with regard to developing the Coate area. Over 52,000 have lodged an objection - their views have been ignored.

Say that it is not an effective policy – the area is remote from the main urban area of Swindon and cannot be integrated with the town. More land needs to be set aside for hospital expansion to meet the health needs of a growing town.

Say it is not consistent with national policy – delivering sustainable development (PPS1) – by virtue of the fact that the potential damage to ecology, to an important literary landscape, to significant archaeological features, to strategic views from the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty & Coate Water Country Park, to Coate Water Site of Special Scientific Interest and Day House Copse Local nature Reserve cannot be secured. Setting these significant features in a modern estate is a sacrilege. Moreover no mention is made of preventing pollution from the landfill area proposed for development whilst Richard Jefferies is not mentioned. The proposal is inconsistent with SBC’s former commitment to protect this area from inappropriate development once the Great Western Hospital was built.

Say that the policy is not justified (plenty of alternatives exist to develop housing and employment land to meet government targets for Swindon) – the land is more important to Swindon’s future as an area of rural recreation and of high landscape value.

In the what changes section, simply state that Policy SSP7 should be deleted as you have no confidence that views will be “respected” from Coate Water & the North Wessex Downs AONB (SSP7 x), that archaeological features will be protected if surrounded by a modern estate (SSP7 viii) that a “functional and robust buffer between Coate Water Country Park and the new development” (SSP ix) will be created as the land-use has not been designated under other policies and that no recognition is made of the need to assess the environmental impact of the development on the literary value and merits of Jefferies Land.

You have until 21st Septmeber to send in your views to SBC.

Swindon Council push ahead with their plans to develop Coate

2009-06-09T08:17:00.003+01:00

Although government is, as yet, to announce its decision about the planning application for development between Coate Water and the A419 Trunk road (the deadline set is 6 August), Swindon Borough Council is still pushing forward with its Core Strategy to permit 750 houses, 15 hectares of employment premises and shops to be built there.

In a document that is likely to be approved by Cabinet at its meeting on 10 June, a new policy for building at “Commonhead” is proposed. Whilst it calls for the creation of “a functional and robust buffer between Coate Water Country Park and new development”, we ask what has happened to the other “robust buffer” promised when the hospital was given the go ahead and the “no houses” promise, if no university materialises?

How can we believe that the land between Coate Water and the new development will be protected in perpetuity when the Council constantly changes its mind?

Councils have a duty to “inform, consult and engage” local communities in everything they do. So why aren’t they listening to the opinion of over 50,000 people who object to the scheme?

*****

This is what the new proposed policy says:

SSP7: Commonhead

Swindon Borough Core Strategy (Proposed Submission Document)

1. Provision will be made for a mixed-use urban extension of 750
dwellings to the north and east of Day House Lane at Commonhead. Development
proposals at this site must:

a) Make provision for the equivalent of 1 primary school or 2 Forms of
Entry, and

b) Make appropriate contributions towards the delivery of new secondary
school facilities, and

c) Provide around 15 hectares of employment land, and

d) Safeguard around 5.5 hectares of land for future expansion of the Great
Western Hospital, and

e) Provide sustainable transport links to the existing urban area and
Swindon town centre, and

f) Provide a neighbourhood centre including retail facilities appropriate to
meet local need, and

g) Provide an appropriate scale and range of formal and informal sport,
leisure and recreation areas in accordance with policy , and

h) Protect and mitigate the impact of development upon archaeological
features, and

i) Create a functional and robust buffer between Coate Water Country Park
and new development, and

j) Respect views from the North Wessex Downs AONB and from Coate Water
Country Park minimising the impact on the landscape character of the area.

Decision on or by 6 August

2009-04-17T10:12:00.002+01:00

The Secretary of State will issue her decision on the planning appeal for the
Coate planning applications on or before 6 August 2009.

Let's hope that it will be a time of celebration.

Ancient stones unearthed at Coate could be part of Swindon’s Neolithic history

2009-03-19T11:53:00.003Z

PRESS RELEASE

Ancient stones unearthed at Coate could be part of Swindon’s Neolithic history

The Jefferies Land Conservation Trust has expressed grave concerns that a Neolithic site dating back some 4,000 years will lose its potential historic and tourist value if the Coate development is permitted.

A recent discovery of two sarsen stones opposite Day House farm, has aroused speculation that many of the lost stones of ritual value still lie buried in the ground, undiscovered. Apparently these two stones were uncovered a week ago whilst digging a ditch alongside Day House Lane.

In 1894, A D Passmore, a local antiquarian recorded in his notebooks [1] two stone circles on Day House Farm that appeared to link to one another by a line of sarsens as well as four more stone circles nearby.

Only one of the six stone circles, opposite Day House Farm, is known today and protected by law albeit that many of the stones in this circle have also been destroyed. The sarsens are almost totally buried in the field but Passmore noted that the stones varied between 6-12 foot in length and the same in width.

Richard Jefferies, the Victorian nature writer born at Coate, also wrote about these stones in the Wiltshire Herald in 1867-8. [1]

Passmore found the remains of another stone circle on Day House Farm a quarter of a mile south-west of the first; he spotted another in the floor of Coate Water, and others at Hodson, Broome and in Burderop Woods.

The most widely accepted theory as to the purpose of Stone Circles is that they are connected with the worship of the Sun and Moon.

Speaking on behalf of the Jefferies Land Conservation Trust, Jean Saunders said:

“Whilst not on the scale of Avebury, it is so exciting to know that Coate is steeped in similar pre-history. We know of a Bronze Age settlement just south of Coate Water, two round barrows opposite Richard Jefferies’ old house at Coate, two stone circles on Day House Farm and lines of stones linking these together with others. It would be criminal to surround these ancient relics of the past with modern buildings. Who knows how many more of these old stones of great spiritual value lie undiscovered? Can Swindon afford to lose more of its history?”

ENDS

Editor’s notes

1. Extracts from Passmore’s notebooks were recorded in the Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Magazine 2004.

2. Richard Jefferies (1849-1887) started his working life as a journalist on local papers. In the Wiltshire Herald Jefferies reported:

‘The road from Coate makes a wide semi-circle round to Chisledon. Day-house Lane cuts off the angle, and was formerly much used, until the road was widened and macadamised. There may be seen on the left side of Day-house Lane, exactly opposite the entrance to a pen on Day-house Farm, five Sarsden stones, much sunk in the ground, but forming a semi-circle of which the lane is the baseline or tangent. There was a sixth upon the edge of the lane, but it was blown up and removed, in order to make the road more serviceable, a few years ago. Whether this was or was not one of those circles known as Druidical, cannot now be determined, but it wears that appearance. It would seem that the modern lane had cut right through the circle, destroying all vestige of one half of it. In the next field, known as the Plain, lies, near the footpath across the fields to Chisledon, another Sarsden of enormous size, with two smaller satellites of the same stone close by. If the semi-circle, just spoken of was a work of the Druids, or of the description known as Druidical, which some think a very different thing, it may be just possible that these detached stones in the Plain had some connection with it.’

For more information contact Jefferies Land Conservation Trust

Write to the Secretary of State

2009-03-12T15:16:00.002Z

The Planning Inquiry is now over and we can only await the Planning Inspector's report and his recommendations for the Secretary of State. The report is likely to appear in 7-12 weeks time. The decision will then rest with Hazel Blears. It is believed that she can take as long as she likes to make a decision as to whether planning permission should be granted for the Coate development proposals.

It would be helpful if the general public write to Ms Blears in an attempt to persuade her that the potential loss of this jewel in Swindon's crown (and give your reasons why you think that this is so) is too big a price to pay for some remote and unrealistic chance that Swindon might gain a university presence. If you heard the loopholes in the conditions that were proposed by the developers for handing over land to a university, you can be assured of one thing - we will get another housing estate and office blocks to gaze upon from Coate Water and from Liddington Hill should planning permission be granted, whilst pigs-might-fly with regard to a hospital extension or university campus. If the University of Bath could not make a go of the offer from the developers, why should the University of the West of England believe that they can do better?

So it is now time to put pen to paper again and write to:

Hazel Blears
Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
Eland House
Bressenden Place
London SW1E 5DU

E-mail address: hazel.blears@communities.gsi.gov.uk

Do make it clear in your letter that you are referring to:

Appeal Refs: A/08/2085605 and 2090316
Land adjacent to Coate Water Country Park, Swindon

Indicative diagram of latest proposals for Coate

2008-12-15T14:14:00.002Z

The developers have been tweaking their planning application again in an attempt to make it more acceptable!!!

Public Inquiry - planning applications for Coate

2008-12-14T08:35:00.000Z

The Public Inquiry is likely to run for 16 days. It will commence on Tuesday 10 February: 10am at the Marriott Hotel. There are no sittings on Mondays and the Friday sessions will finish at lunchtime but commence at 9.30am. Tues-Thursday 10am-5pm. The programme will run for two weeks, then one week off, and resume again for a possible two weeks.

Write to the Planning Inspectorate about the Coate development proposals

2008-10-14T10:11:00.003+01:00

Swindon Borough Council has sent out notices of a planning appeal lodged by the Swindon Gateway Consortium (namely Redrow Homes and Persimmon Homes) asking the Secretary of State to make a decision about one of their applications to develop at Coate. A local planning inquiry will be held and you have an opportunity to have your say on the matter.

You must send 3 copies of your letter to the Bristol office by 4 November 2008. Below is a standard text that can be adapted and submitted.

*******
The Planning Inspectorate
Room 4/04
Temple Quay House
2 The Square
Temple Quay
Bristol BS1 6PN

Dear Sir or Madam

Appeal reference number: APP/U3935/A/08/2085605/NWF

Re: outline application for the provision of a university, houses, offices etc on land adjacent to Coate Water Country Park, the Marlborough Road, the A419 and M4 at Coate, Swindon Wilts.

I have already submitted an objection to the planning applications lodged by Persimmon Homes and Redrow Homes to build on one of Swindon's most precious and environmentally sensitive sites. I am one of the 50,000 people who signed a petition calling for a wide buffer of countryside to be retained around Coate Water. Never has a planning application in Swindon aroused so much passion against a building proposal.

I am a member of the Jefferies Land Conservation Trust whose goal is to protect the land under threat from development and to turn it into a nature reserve in order to enhance Coate Water Site of Special Scientific Interest and its wildlife interest, to protect the special landscape between Coate Water and the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and to preserve the literary and historic value of this pocket of countryside.

You may not be aware that Richard Jefferies was a pioneer ecologist and is best known for his nature writing. He lived at Coate, next to the proposed development area) and every inch of hedge, stream, ditch, field, tree, plant and animal and Coate Water was explored and recorded in his writing. In a poll in the Guardian in 2006, he was voted as Britain’s favourite countryside writer.

Despite Jefferies’ international following and his local importance, no attempt has been made to evaluate the environmental impact of the proposed development on the literary value of the land at any stage of the development plan or planning application process. So keen were Swindon Borough Council to let the University of Bath build a campus at Coate, that their assessment of Coate as a development area hid many of the great environmental features of the landscape.

The current Swindon Borough Local Plan 2011 policy DS3, relating to the land in question, is an enabling one adopted to facilitate the needs of the University of Bath who then pulled out of the Swindon Gateway Partnership early last year. This action was closely followed by the Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust, leaving only Persimmon Homes and Redrow Homes in the “partnership”. This position still holds – no new “partners” have come forward. Both the Panel who conducted the Examination in Public of the Wiltshire and Swindon Structure Plan 2016 and the Swindon Borough Local Plan 2011 Inspector were swayed to recommend that the site might be developed because of the University of Bath’s insistence that no other site at Swindon was acceptable to them.

I request that the Planning Inspectorate ensures that the scope of the planning inquiry is as far-reaching as possible. I believe that it was inappropriate to identify the area for mixed use development in the development plans and many of the criteria, on which sustainability of the site was based, are unsound.

Please keep me informed about progress on the planning application appeal and the local planning inquiry.

Thank you.

Yours faithfully

Where Will You Go When The Concrete Comes?

2008-09-08T14:46:00.001+01:00

Where Will You Go When The Concrete Comes?

A canal-cut reservoir at Coate Water,

A manuscript of field, sky and lake-land

For Richard Jefferies and his muse,

Wandering east from England’s Chicago.

Recreation for Railway families,

Who couldn’t afford the annual Trip,

Just trying to forget the Great War

And short-time working.

It’s where my mother dived deep into the waves

Wind-whipped and keen before the polio scare,

And where mum and dad courted before the War.

It’s where I paddled in the 1950’s,

Thrilled by miniature railway rides,

Egg sandwiches and ice cream cornets,

In long summer holiday equal measure,

Until the smell of creosote and Woodbines

Wafted through the wooden changing rooms,

With the 11 Plus, The Beatles,

And Don Rogers on a thousand transistor radios.

It’s where young men impressed their girl friends

With a clean sweep of the oars from out the boathouse,

Cries of joy echoing in the willowed, muddied banks,

While the great crested grebe stared up to the Downs

And the thatched cottages up in Hodson,

“The Gamekeeper At Home”, still.

You can see all these memories reflected in the waters,

You can see all of yours too,

Take a walk and peer into the shifting surface,

There they are just waiting to be netted,

With the rod and line of recollection,

But where will they all go when the concrete comes?

by Stuart Butler

House-builders launch a planning appeal

2008-07-15T08:20:00.002+01:00

Redrow Homes and Persimmon Homes have lodged an appeal with the Secretary of State against Swindon Borough Council over their failure to make a decision about one of their planning applications to develop land east and south of Coate Water Country Park.

There are two planning applications related to the area - the main planning application relates to the bulk of the houses (1550 houses), the employment land and university campus. The second relates to a field owned by Mr & Mrs Austin (who live in Bourton, Oxfordshire)that is designated for 250 houses. It is the first of these planning applications that is up for appeal.

The decision whether to allow the development will now be in the hands of the Planning Inspectorate in Bristol. All being well, a Local Public Inquiry will be held where the public will have an opportunity to make their comments about the proposals.

Watch this space to find out what to do to save Coate.

House builders submit revised plans

2008-06-23T14:53:00.003+01:00

Persimmon Homes and Redrow Homes have submitted a revised planning application to Swindon Borough Council for 1,800 houses, 14 hectares of employment land, a university campus etc etc.

It is virtually the same as the one submitted in August 2007. The house-builders still haven't found a university partner.

Keep up the fight!

Swindon Core Strategy consultation - please respond!

2008-03-16T08:18:00.005Z

Once again Swindon Borough Council is proposing policies in their Swindon Core Strategy that would blight the landscape east of Coate Water.

Here are some notes to help you respond to the Council’s preferred option of Coate/Badbury Wick (“Commonhead”) for development of 750 houses and 15 hectares of industrial landuse, followed by a sample letter that you might send to the council instead of using their glossy response sheet. (The forms are available at the council offices and libraries or at Swindon Core Strategy along with all the documentation [and online response pages]. Completed forms to: Forward Planning Group, Freepost SCE5251, Swindon Borough Council, Premier House, Station Road, Swindon, SN1 1TZ and must arrive no later than 4.30pm on Monday 12th May 2008.)

Support Key Objective 5 to allocate land for a university campus at North Star. This objective is in line with government planning policy (PPS13) that encourages the siting of facilities of this nature at places that can be readily accessed on foot, by bicycle and by public transport. The objective is also in line with SBC policy to situate tertiary education in the town centre to aid its urban regeneration programme.

Object to Spatial Framework Preferred Option in para 19.11.
Delete “Commonhead” as a preferred location for 750 houses and 15 hectares of employment land.
Reason: Whilst appreciating that SBC must meet housing and employment land requirements set down in the emerging Regional Spatial Strategy for the south-west, there is no duty upon SBC to put forward sites that are not sustainable. Indeed, if SBC must accept the requirement to accommodate a further 37,000 houses in Swindon between 2006-2026, never was there a greater time in Swindon’s history to protect this most treasured landscape in the foothills of the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty that stretches to Coate Water (the area missed national designation as an AONB in the 1970s because the building of the M4 motorway and A419 Trunk road at that time formed a “convenient line on the map” to limit the designation). On environmental, historic and literary grounds, the land between Coate Water and the Richard Jefferies Museum, stretching east-south-east to Liddington Hill, is of major archaeological importance – it is a Bronze Age gateway site to the Downs; it is of major literary significance – inspirational in the works of Richard Jefferies (who is still rated as one of Britain’s best nature writers) and Alfred Williams who shared a common passion for Liddington Hill and the views from it; and it is next to Coate Water Site of Special Scientific Interest and the Country Park; a major public amenity as well as a wild-life sanctuary.

Object to Para 20.24 – “Commonhead Preferred Option”.Reason: This option is in conflict with advice in para 23.23 that supports protecting and enhancing historic landscapes. Can there be any other landscape of greater historic importance in Swindon given its roots in pre-history and its cultural and literary importance associated with Richard Jefferies? The proposed development area includes key fields of significant archaeological importance to the north of Day House Lane opposite the Richard Jefferies Museum and Day House Farm that date back to the Neolithic period. The proposed development area also takes in fields of major Medieval archaeological significance at Badbury Wick. These fields were also extremely important to Richard Jefferies – he recorded the archaeology and many were noted as favourite “thinking” places.

The proposed development area includes Day House Copse, a local nature reserve that would be isolated from Coate Water restricting movement of terrestrial wild life species dependent on the link. The copse is an ancient oak woodland that features in Richard Jefferies writing (e.g. Greene Ferne Farm, Wood Magic).

SBC committed itself to the principle that if no university is based at Coate, there would be no houses. Following shortly after their promise that the only development in the area would be the hospital, SBC must uphold the “no university, no houses” rule.

Whilst supporting the protection of a buffer around Coate Water and incorporating what is now private farmland into the Country Park, the views from the park would still become urban in nature as a result of the morphology of the landscape. The hospital is clearly visible from Coate Water. There is no indication in the preferred option to indicate how proposed buffer land would be incorporated into the Country Park or how it would be obtained, protected and managed in perpetuity.

It is difficult to see how the views from the Downs can be “respected” if the fields are urbanised. The fields leading to Coate Water dominate the landscape particularly as viewed from Liddington Hill. The hospital is a major intrusion on the landscape from Liddington Hill.

Day House Lane has a unique rural quality and is used by walkers, joggers, ramblers, cyclists and horse-riders for recreation on a regular basis. The site is a gateway to the Downs. The route to Liddington Hill was inspirational to Richard Jefferies who walked it regularly from Coate Farm and it led to the production of his autobiographical work The Story of my Heart that has strong spiritual overtones.

The area identified includes land that has been used to bury waste that was never subject to regulation. It is contaminated and leaching pollutants to air, ground and water. The only appropriate after use of the site is for public open space or tree planting – not development.

We accept that land will be required at Commonhead for hospital expansion. Have all plans for a Park and Ride site at Commonhead now fallen? The Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust have bought the field earmarked for Park and Ride and they have no intention to sell it. Where does this leave SBC’s transport plan?

Development near Junction 15 of the M4 is inaccessible and remote from Swindon town centre. It cannot be accessed from the A419T or the M4. As such it is an unsustainable site that is unlikely to attract a bus service and will encourage car-based commuting.

Development of fields opposite the hamlet of Coate will exacerbate flooding of the existing buildings (some are below ground level) and there is a scheduled building next to the proposed development field that is also of major literary importance to Richard Jefferies.

Support 23-23 Historic Landscapes and Buildings options. Landscapes and buildings of importance to Richard Jefferies should be carefully preserved and enhanced for their cultural and historic quality.

SAMPLE LETTER

To:
Forward Planning Group
Freepost SCE5251
Swindon Borough Council
Premier House
Swindon, SN1 1SX.

From:
Name:
Address:
Postcode:
Tel No (home):
Tel No (work):
Email:
Date

Swindon Core Strategy Preferred Options Draft, March 2008

I disagree with Swindon Borough Council’s draft spatial framework for the borough and its preferred option to allocate land at Coate/Badbury Wick (“Commonhead”) for the building of 750 houses and for 15 hectares of business use. This option should be deleted from the Swindon Core Strategy and a policy put in place that protects the high landscape value of the area.

I am one of 35,000 people who signed the Save Coate petition in order to protect open countryside between Coate Water and the Downs from development. Swindon Borough Council pledged that if no university wished to develop at Coate, there would be no houses built. Once again, assurances to protect this unique countryside are being broken and I have no faith that any buffer land left around Coate Water won’t become a building site when circumstances change.

The proposal conflicts with advice elsewhere in the Swindon Core Strategy that supports protecting and enhancing historic landscapes. Coate and Badbury Wick are steeped in history given their roots in pre-history. The significant cultural and literary importance of the landscape that influenced Richard Jefferies’ writing, is unique. Key fields of significant archaeological importance to the north of Day House Lane (opposite the Richard Jefferies Museum and Day House Farm) that date back to the Neolithic period are included in the proposed development area. The area also includes fields of major Medieval significance at Badbury Wick. Day House Copse, a local nature reserve and ancient oak woodland, would be surrounded by a housing estate isolating wildlife from Coate Water and the surrounding countryside. The views from the Downs and Coate Water cannot be “respected” if the fields are urbanised. The hospital is already a major blot on the landscape and we were assured that the hospital was a one-off building in this area. Day House Lane has a unique rural quality and it is used by walkers, joggers, ramblers, cyclists and horse-riders for recreation on a regular basis. Development near Junction 15 of the M4 is inaccessible and remote from Swindon town centre. It is unlikely to attract a regular bus service and will encourage car-based commuting.

I am appalled that Swindon Borough Council is proposing that land in this area should be developed further – this is nothing less than vandalism.

Signed

PLEASE DONATE TO LAND FUND

2008-02-15T12:29:00.004Z

LAND FUND

The Trust has set up a Land Fund with the aim to buy as much farmland as possible between Coate Water and the North Wessex Downs in order to create new wild-life friendly habitats.

Donations can be made through the Charities Aid Foundation by following the link. Type in Jefferies Land Conservation Trust once connected to the site.

Thank you.

Charity will uphold Swindon Council’s pledge of ‘No university, no houses’ at Coate

2008-02-05T14:27:00.000Z

The Jefferies Land Conservation Trust [1] has pledged to fight on to ensure that Swindon Borough Council keeps to its promise that if no university comes forward to set up a campus in the Coate/Badbury Wick area, no houses will be built there.

The conservation trust, a registered charity set up in 2005 with the aim to protect and enhance the environmental, historic and cultural quality of the landscape beloved by Victorian nature writer Richard Jefferies, held its Annual General Meeting on 2nd February. Members received news of a new draft Swindon Borough Council blue-print. Entitled ‘Swindon Core Strategy,’ [2] the Council sets out its preferred options for the development of Swindon to 2026 that went to their Cabinet for approval on 23rd January. The Trust was disappointed to learn that Swindon Council wishes to make provision for 750 new houses and 15 hectares of employment land at ‘Commonhead.’ The Trust had asked that the land, under threat from development next to Coate Water Country Park and in the foothills of the Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, should be re-designated as an Area of Local Landscape Importance. Up until five years ago, the area was protected as a result of its high visual value.

The proposal to develop two square kilometres of land between Coate Water and the Downs by the Swindon Gateway Partnership (essentially Redrow Homes and Persimmon Homes) has been the most controversial building plan to face Swindon and it generated objections from 35,000 people who signed a petition against it.

Jean Saunders, Secretary of the Jefferies Land Conservation Trust said:

“ ‘No houses’ means ‘no houses.’ The Council might propose a larger buffer around Coate Water Country Park that they claim will be safe from development, but we might have this same battle again in a few years time. Only seven years ago we were promised that the only new building in this corner of the town would be the new hospital and we won’t be fooled again”.

Mrs Saunders added:

“Our Members have agreed to set up a Land Fund with the intention of fund-raising to buy as much of the threatened farmland as possible and turn it into a wild-life haven, given a positive response from the land owners. We hope that Swindon people will back this idea and dip into their pockets to help”.

The draft Council Strategy document should be issued for consultation in March and the public will have only eight weeks to make their views known.

ENDS

Editor’s notes

[1] More information about the Trust at http://jefferiesland.org.uk

[2] The draft consultation document can be downloaded here:

Letter of objection to new planning applications

2007-08-12T08:34:00.000+01:00

Mr Ian Halsall
Planning Department
Swindon Borough Council
Premier House
Station Road
Swindon SN1 1TZ

Objection to outline planning applications SO7\1688 & SO7\1689 – Swindon Gateway proposal for land at Coate.

Dear Mr Halsall

I wish to lodge a formal objection to the outline planning applications submitted by Persimmon Homes and Redrow Homes to build 1,800 houses, a university campus including accommodation for students, offices and community facilities on countryside at Coate and Badbury Wick.

Whilst I appreciate that land at Coate has been allocated in the Swindon Local Plan for mixed use development incorporating a university campus, the policy was drawn up to meet the needs of the University of Bath who are no longer interested in developing the site. As no new university partner has come forward, it is premature to consider the planning application given that the elements of the proposals must relate to each other and cannot proceed until the requirements of any future university partner, if any, are met. Currently, the planning applications conflict with Swindon Local Plan policy DS3 and should be refused planning permission.

The planning applications also conflict with many other requirements of policy DS3.

The rural views out of Coate Water Country Park have not been respected – offering glimpses of countryside between the buildings is not in the spirit of the policy.

The height and layout of buildings do not respect the views from the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, particularly those in the business park, and do not provide a soft urban edge to Swindon.

The provision of at least 60 hectares of land for a university campus has not been met (DS3a) – there is barely 44 hectares of land set aside for a campus. The land allocated for the university campus falls within the area that Natural England believe should be protected and enhanced to secure the conservation value of Coate Water Site of Special Scientific Interest. The proposed buildings next to Coate Water nature reserve are too close, too concentrated and too high.

Whilst the policy calls for the provision of up to 1800 houses, this was conditional on there being sufficient land suitable and available for development. This is clearly not the case given that a buffer of at least 300m is required at the north- east boundary of Coate Water to protect the rural setting of the Country Park and archaeological features whilst the old landfill site is also proposed for house-building contrary to government planning guidance.

The setting of the listed buildings in the area has not been considered. These include the Richard Jefferies Museum, Day House Farm and the milestone along the old Coate lane – all have Grade II listing and their rural setting is also important given the context of their importance to Richard Jefferies’ writing. Indeed, there has been no environmental impact assessment of the proposals on the literary landscape value of Jefferies Land – a unique feature in Swindon that has been grossly under-rated by both the borough council and the developers.

The transport infrastructure is inadequate to cope with the increased traffic that would pour out onto Marlborough Road. The residents of Coate should not be forced to live on a plot of land that acts as a roundabout.

The underpass at Coate roundabout regularly floods – the sewage infrastructure is already inadequate whilst any increase in flow in the Dorcan Brook and the River Cole will increase flooding incidents elsewhere. Day House Lane is regularly flooded as are the fields to the south-east of Coate Water.

This area of Swindon is very special to me and should be protected at all costs. With the pressures on Swindon to get bigger, this last remnant of local countryside next to Coate Water, along with its historic and literary connections with Coate-born writer Richard Jefferies and the varied extensive archaeology dating back to the early Bronze Age, is even more valuable as an educational and recreational facility than ever before.

The buffer proposed around the Country Park, is insufficient to protect and enhance the wildlife interest of the Coate Water Site of Special Scientific Interest and the rural landscape setting of the park. It is too narrow to be of any value and there is no indication that building work will be delayed for several years until after newly created habitats have had an opportunity to mature. In some places there is no buffer proposed – merely a row of trees that will ultimately block out the treasured views from Coate Water across to Liddington Hill and the Downs.

The scale, nature and location of the different elements of the proposed development will reduce wildlife movement, drastically reduce feeding areas and habitats for protected species such as hares, badgers, bats, otters and endangered birds both within and outside the nature reserves. Human intrusion and predation from household pets could further destroy the wildlife value of the area forever.

The impact of the buildings on the landscape will be indescribably awful and totally unacceptable. The new hospital – one kilometre from Coate Water - has been a good marker to show just how badly a modern building can ruin the views from the Downs and Coate Water.

The university campus should be located in the town centre near the railway station as originally proposed. There is already provision to build thousands more houses whilst empty industrial units and offices litter the Borough. We don't need more.

Coate Water is my favourite place in Swindon. Its value to the town is beyond price. Please refuse planning permission and protect this area for future generations to enjoy as much as I have.

Please keep me informed about any decision that is taken.

Yours sincerely

New policies suggested to protect Jefferies Land.

2007-07-16T15:03:00.000+01:00

Swindon Friends of the Earth, the Richard Jefferies Society, the Jefferies Land Conservation Trust and the Swindon Civic Trust have written to Swindon Borough Council's Forward Planning team asking them to consider the following changes to the next Swindon Local Development Framework Plan :

- a focus on North Star as the favoured site for tertiary education as proposed in the deposit draft Swindon Local Plan 2011 along with other town centre sites.

- the reinstatement of the former Thamesdown/Swindon Borough Council Local Plan policies and Wiltshire Structure Plan policy that afforded protection and enhancement of the high and unique landscape value of the countryside in the foothills of the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty that stretches to Coate Water Country Park, a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and Burderop Wood Local Nature Reserve and which includes Day House Copse Local Nature Reserve. As such it would be necessary to re-evaluate the area that might be developed without harm to the environment and to allow for some hospital expansion.

- a new policy that seeks to protect and enhance the landscape setting of Coate Farm that houses the Jefferies Museum and other features associated with the world class nature and countryside writer, Richard Jefferies.

The letter continues:

The emerging Regional Spatial Strategy for the South-West offers this observation for the forward planning of Swindon to 2026: "the town has aspirations to establish a university". (paragraph 4.2.26) There is no further reference to making provision for a university in the Swindon strategy. Given that the University of Bath has dropped all proposals to provide a major campus at Coate or a medical research facility at Commonhead and whilst the Higher Education Funding Council of England is no longer supporting grants to establish new out-of-town campus-style educational facilities, the time is ripe to re-visit the planning policies for the Coate area that were only introduced to satisfy the needs of the University of Bath. As such, the emerging Framework Plan for Swindon should focus the town’s tertiary education needs at North Star and the town centre as part of the regeneration programme.

There is a considerable amount of new evidence related to the Coate area since both the Examination in Public of the Wiltshire and Swindon Structure Plan 2016 and the Public Inquiry of the Swindon Borough Local Plan 2011 took place. The area, that was thought to be suitable for development at the time by some, is far more heavily constrained by environmental and historic assets than previously recognised whilst environmental considerations such as the presence of unstable contaminated land and potential flood areas have been brushed aside. The archaeological study alone has revealed major constraints to development, unknown previously, that must now be protected. Further evidence has emerged to show that the ecological studies carried out on behalf of the developers were flawed and unreliable suggesting that the precautionary buffer of 0.5km to protect Coate Water SSSI, as proposed by Natural England (formerly English Nature), is more realistic. Furthermore, planners have demonstrated no appreciation of the importance of the unique literary landscape quality of the area and have failed to undertake any study that might shed light on the matter. If they had done so, they might understand why Richard Jefferies, particularly in his position as a pioneer environmentalist, is one of Swindon’s greatest assets and why the landscape that inspired Jefferies’ writing is of significant literary importance.

As such we believe that the Coate/Badbury Wick/Burderop area, that just escaped official national designation as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (as part of the North Wessex Downs) in the 1970s, should be re-designated as a Landscape Character Area subject to a policy of protection and enhancement that would require any permitted development to be in keeping with the historic setting of the landscape. Land that might be excluded from the policy might be evaluated in order to allow for some expansion of the hospital.

Richard Jefferies (1848-1887) was born at Coate Farm and lived at Coate for the best part of his first 28 years. In his short writing career, he wrote over 20 books and hundreds of essays and articles, many of them heavily influenced by his years of living in a farming community at Coate. Coate Farm was purchased by Swindon Corporation in 1926. Since that positive act of preservation 81 years ago, it is unfortunate that the Corporation's successors have made many unsympathetic changes to the property that include selling off meadow to the Sun Inn to extend their car-park, building a large “shed” in the same meadow (Brook Field) that was intended for use as an agricultural museum, reducing the size of the orchards and front garden for road widening, pulling down the thatched cow-sheds and thatched rick-shed, and replacing the thatch on the cart-house with an asbestos roof. A public outcry in the 1970s stopped the council from pulling down the pig-sties and barn. It was as a result of a national appeal by Sir John Betjeman, Spike Milligan, Johnny Morris and other national figures who helped the Richard Jefferies Society raise money for repairs, that the buildings were saved from demolition.

The Jefferies Museum attracts visitors from all around the world. This year alone there have been visitors from Canada, Australia, New Zealand and France drawn there because of their admiration for Jefferies’ writing. Visitors are thrilled that they can still see so many natural and man-made features in the area that Jefferies clearly identified and described in his books, albeit that he used fictitious place names. The development pressures on Swindon make Jefferies’ home vulnerable. Any further degradation of the property or of the setting of the Grade II listed building must not be permitted in order to allow future generations the opportunity to appreciate this literary heritage site. As such, we request that a policy is introduced in the Framework Plan that recognises the importance of the Jefferies house at Coate and ensures that it is preserved and enhanced.

Treading in the footsteps of Richard Jefferies’ Coate

2007-05-27T12:53:00.000+01:00

The Richard Jefferies Society and the Jefferies Land Conservation Trust are joining forces with the public on Sunday 3rd June to celebrate places around Coate that the Victorian naturalist and countryside writer highlighted in his books written about 130 years ago.

Guided by Mark Daniel, now in his 80’s and living in Brighton, there will be a walk around Coate Water illustrated by readings from Bevis – a boy’s adventure story based around Jefferies’ old Coate farmhouse and Coate Water. The event starts at 11am, meeting next to the Coate Water Rangers’ centre in the car park at Coate Water.

The tour will end in the gardens of Jefferies’ House and Museum where a picnic is planned at lunchtime. Refreshments will be provided and participants are invited to bring their own snacks.

Marissa & Steve Rouse’s 'Romanska School of World Dance' will put on a creative show for visitors in the garden during the lunch break. 'The Battle of Coate’ is a dance piece dealing with the current development plans at Coate. Characters include the Giant Albion, Richard Jefferies, the Lady of the Lake in her Coate of Water, Councillor Money Bags, Urban Sprawl and Concrete Box.

A new leaflet of the Coate walk has been produced for the occasion funded by the National Lottery’s Awards for All grant. The leaflet (see enclosure) is available at the Coate Water Rangers Centre and at the Jefferies’ Museum.

Mark Daniel, member of the Richard Jefferies Society and author of the leaflet, said:

“I first discovered Bevis when I was about twelve. The story tells of the adventures of two boys for whom the exciting possibilities of their world are just dawning. It is no namby-pamby life either. Adventures include living on an island on Coate Water, mock battles with Coate village lads and swimming, fishing and sailing on the lake. It was a great joy to visit Coate as an adult and find that many of the places mentioned in Jefferies’ books are still there bringing the writing alive to generations of readers. But how much longer will this be the case if Coate is swamped with more development?”

Steve Rouse, member of the Jefferies Land Conservation Trust said:

“I was incensed when I learnt the scale of the building plans next to Coate Water that would destroy a beauty spot that I hold dear. I wanted to use my performing skills to highlight the battle to save Coate. With the help of young dancers, we plan to recount the tale”.

The museum is open to visitors on Sunday from 2-5pm. The event is free and suitable for all ages. Contact Jean Saunders on 01793 783040 for more information.

NO UNIVERSITY = NO HOUSES AT COATE

2007-03-02T14:00:00.000Z

On 1st March 2007 the University of Bath announced that they were pulling out for good from the Coate development proposals. The so-called Swindon Gateway plan earmarked two square kilometres of countryside to the east and south of Coate Water Country Park for a campus, 1800 houses and offices. The university cite two main reasons for the decision: an inability to arrive at an agreement with Persimmon Homes and Redrow Homes who were offering them free land for a campus and a change in government funding preferences for higher education.

The truth of the matter is that building works are highly constrained by the existence of multiple environmental assets at Coate and Badbury Wick whilst a recent archaeological study has revealed that there are even more “no go” areas than previously detected. As a result, the house-builders were putting a squeeze on the land they first allocated to the university and even this was on the most ecologically sensitive area surrounding Coate Water nature reserve.

Despite the university’s announcement, the house builders state that they intend to submit a new planning application around May and hope to start building their housing and office estate in 2008. They say that they would leave an area for a campus even though they know that no other university wants the land.

The Save Coate! battle is not yet won. Swindon Borough Council has stated most emphatically – NO UNIVERSITY – NO HOUSES. But Redrow and Persimmon Homes will try every trick in the book to push through their proposal.

30,000 people have signed a petition asking for a substantial buffer of countryside to be left around Coate Water to protect its national designation as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, to protect its wildlife and to safeguard the views to and from Liddington Hill and the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Moreover it is a landscape treasured by Victorian nature writer, Richard Jefferies (1848-87) born at Coate, who drew inspiration from it.

The Jefferies Land Conservation Trust seeks to acquire the proposed development area, particularly around Coate Water, in order to enhance the nature reserve and to keep Coate Water as a COUNTRY park.

ACTION

- Sign the Save Coate! petition at the link.

- Write to Mrs Vivien O’Connell, Planning Department, Swindon Borough Council, Premier House, Station Road SN1 1TZ stating why you object to development next to Coate Water Country Park.

- Write to the Leader of SBC, Councillor Roderick Bluh at the Civic Offices, Euclid Street SN1 2JH supporting his stance of NO UNIVERSITY- NO HOUSES.

- Join the Jefferies Land Conservation Trust

Annual Report and Winter Newsletter

2006-12-12T08:55:00.000Z

JEFFERIES LAND CONSERVATION TRUST

ANNUAL REPORT 2006
and Winter Newsletter

The objects of the Jefferies Land Conservation Trust [JLCT] shall be to promote, for the benefit of the public, the conservation and improvement of the physical and natural environment of Jefferies Land near Swindon and to advance the education of the public in the study of literary landscapes [with particular reference to the role played by Richard Jefferies] and environmentally sustainable lifestyles.

The JLCT was founded on 13 September 2005. A constitution was formally adopted on 10 December 2005 when five Trustees were also appointed. The organisation then registered as a charity [Number 1112836], for gift-aid and as an Environmental Body.

This Annual Report has been put together by the Trustees. The accounts cover the period from 13 September 2005 to 30 November 2006 that includes the initial months when the Trust was managed by a Steering Committee. There is a summary of the Annual Accounts at the end of the report and the agenda for the Annual General Meeting that will be held on 27th January 2007.

MISSION
To promote the most environmentally sustainable use of the countryside between Coate Water, the M4 motorway, the Great Western Hospital and the Marlborough Downs that adds value to the ecological, literary, educational, recreational and historic quality of the landscape.

TRUSTEES
The following Trustees were appointed to serve the JLCT at the first Special General Meeting held on 10 December 2005.
Chairman Alan Haywood
Secretary Jean Saunders
Treasurer Sue Birley
Marilyn Beale
Simon Bridewell

The contact details are provided on the back page.

Message from the Chairman

This is the first annual report of the JLCT. It has been somewhat quiet with regard to the Save Coate! campaign, until now. There has been no formal feedback from Swindon Borough Council about the Trust’s proposed alternative use of the land in question. I posed questions on behalf of the Trust to Swindon Borough Council’s cabinet on 17 January 2005, partly to ascertain whether any councillors had read our report. The leader’s response, loosely interpreted, was that we had a ‘pie-in-the-sky’ vision and where would we get the money to buy the land? A minor detail! Whilst our ultimate dream was to purchase the proposed development land next to Coate Water and put it into Trust, the Lottery Heritage Fund would not entertain such a proposition. At the same time, the land-owners affected had nearly all entered into legal agreements with either Redrow Homes or Persimmon Homes to sell their land to the housing developers in the event of planning consent being gained.

So we decided to focus our efforts on land where we might make a difference – hence all the activity related to Richard Jefferies’ birthplace and home at Coate that abuts the proposed development area. The gardens were neglected and unloved, but the Trust has changed all that.

The months have whisked past and the first Annual General Meeting is now approaching. It will be held at the Jefferies Museum on Saturday 24th January 2007 at 11am. This will be an opportunity to see the work in progress and to discuss the latest developers’ plans for Coate and what we should do about them. Please come along and support the Trust.

Alan Hayward
Honorary Chairman
===
Trustees’ Report

We have succeeded in carrying out nearly all of the proposals for future work outlined on page 9 of this report apart from supporting the Ecobash. More than that, many members have been undertaking “extreme gardening”, as Simon Bridewell described it, turning the grounds of the Richard Jefferies museum into a more attractive place for both visitors and for wildlife. As the Museum has attracted a record number of visitors this year, the improvements have been noticed, if not appreciated, by Swindon Borough Council, the owners of the property. On the other hand, the Richard Jefferies Society, who provide the volunteers to open the Museum, is extremely grateful for the improvements. Their volunteers are no longer embarrassed to show visitors around the gardens even though there is much work still to be done. We missed out on a bid for substantial funds to restore out-buildings and the gardens because of Swindon Borough Council’s lack of support. Not only was this extremely disappointing it also involved a lot of hard work and time.

Currently, membership of the Trust stands at 74 subscriptions representing thousands of people. This is made up of 19 family memberships, 8 organisations/Parish Councils and 47 individuals. Two thirds of the membership live local to the Swindon area. The remaining third are drawn from all around the country and the globe.

The Save Coate campaign
There is still no planning consent to build 1800 houses, offices and a university campus next to Coate Water Site of Special Scientific Interest. The planning application submitted in April 2005 by the Swindon Gateway Consortium [Redrow Homes, Persimmon Homes, University of Bath and the Swindon & Marlborough NHS Trust] is still sitting on Swindon Borough Council’s desk. In the meantime, an extensive archaeological study of the proposed Coate development area has been undertaken by the developers. Extensive, because there is so much good archaeology to be found ranging from Bronze Age to Roman to Medieval and with tales of a World War II bomb landing on Day House farm and creating a massive crater in the fields, who knows what might be found?
Just in time to make this newsletter, the developers announced that they were proposing an increase in buffer size of 40%. However, this figure masked the real proposal. The picture on the front cover of the newsletter is the developers’ indicative master plan published in November 2006. Those of you who saw the September 2004 plan will note that there is virtually no difference apart from an increased buffer south of Coate Water. As this area was intended for the university playing fields, this inclusion is of no great significance but it should help protect, what is thought to be, the site of a Neolithic settlement. The green hatched areas on the map also have major archaeological features – the developers aren’t giving away anything there either. Evidently exhibitions of the new plans will be held in Swindon in the New Year and the new planning application will appear soon after. Watch this space!

‘Coate and Richard Jefferies’ pamphlet
The report written by John Chandler has been distributed far and wide. It has been used by the Trust and the Richard Jefferies Society to argue the case for giving special protection to the literary landscape associated with Jefferies’ writing. So far this has fallen on deaf ears both at local and national planning law level.

Works in Richard Jefferies’ Gardens
What was an un-negotiable overgrowth of brambles and nettles is now a place to soak up the atmosphere of the gardens and see nature return. There are a couple of before and after pictures on page 12. Whilst Richard Jefferies hated to see nature tamed and was not averse to the odd bramble or two, even he would have despised the lack of biodiversity in his beloved gardens and orchards. So many people have given up their free time to dig and prune, plant and weed that if you were to add up all the hours this year spent gardening, it would amount to something like one person working in the grounds full-time. A special thanks must go to Peter Reuby who has uncovered paths that have been buried for years and has left most of his gardening tools at the Museum. A man seen wearing shorts and sporting a scythe escaped being locked up when seen travelling on a Thamesdown Transport bus from Parks to Coate! The numerous work-parties that have helped out include Nationwide Building Society staff, TWIGS [therapeutic work in gardens] and Wiltshire Wildlife Trust who have given the restoration work a massive boost. So many Trust members have worked over and above the call of duty that include Carmela Masi, Steve Nethercot, Brian Burrows, Kate Brailsford, Simon Bridewell, Sue and David Birley, John Webb, Margaret Fryer, Sam and Jason Reeves, Alan Hayward, Jean Saunders and Dawn Manser and daughters. Many have raided their own gardens to bring plants and it is thanks to Carmela that we received a £500 grant from Royal Mail to buy flowers, shrubs and trees for the gardens. We now have two garden benches as well, even though we have all been too busy to sit around and use them!

The summer newsletter provided information about the Trust’s bid to the Lottery Heritage Fund and Biffawaste to get a substantial grant to restore some major features in the grounds of the museum. Despite enthusiasm to support the project by both funding bodies, neither was able to offer a grant. The main reason given was the lack of support by Swindon Borough Council. Whilst missing out on funding was extremely disappointing, much of the work that needed to be carried out in the gardens has been achieved by volunteers. The Trust even succeeded in getting listed building consent to restore the walls, fences, paths and out-buildings. This permission will not go to waste.

There are grave concerns that Swindon Borough Council would prefer the profile of the museum not to be raised. Does the Council just view the museum and grounds as a potential development asset? With the recent news that Lower Shaw Farm, a fantastic educational resource in west Swindon, is to be sold off by the Council for housing development, our misgivings may well have a strong basis.

Whilst the Council jumps up and down at any suggestion that Swindon is a cultural desert, it does nothing to allay the criticism.

“FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN”

This is the title of a little book compiled by J Lee Osborn of Liddington in October 1937. It seems that even then local people were up in arms about the destruction of countryside and great buildings around Swindon, partly “to widen the road for a few yards in order to facilitate the speed of motorists who have no time to spare”, according to Mr Osborn. The chapters of the book were gathered up “as a souvenir and a message, probably final, to many friends, greatly valued, old and new, near and far… Several of these chapters have appeared in the Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard.” In the foreword, Mr Osborn writes:

“To adopt a too familiar phrase, a trough of low pressure is extending over the British Isles. Much of the art, literature, music, architecture of to-day— especially architecture, has become debased, unlovely, meretricious, vulgarised; manners, too frequently, ungracious and uncouth. What has hitherto been deemed sacred and beautiful is derided, defaced, destroyed.”

The ‘fragment’ in the book referring to Richard Jefferies reads as follows:

Any who have learnt to know and delight in the writings of Jefferies and who have occasion to travel along the Great Western Railway, might do worse sometime than break their journey at Swindon for two or three hours, take the bus up to Old Swindon, and run on to Coate, if time permit to Chiseldon as well, and see for themselves this glorious " Jefferies Country," to most people a terra incognita. They will see some of the finest landscape and downland that even England has to show.

This was written before the nature reserve at Coate Water was created as a flood area for the main lake to the south-east. I wonder if Mr Osborn lived to see it? What is for sure is that he would be the first to line up to fight the Coate development plans.

Richard Jefferies Society

The Society was founded in 1950 and has about 300 members around the world. Most of their activities are based in Swindon, although much of Richard Jefferies’ best writing was undertaken elsewhere during his short life. However his heart was always at Coate. Whilst the JLCT does not organise regular public meetings, the Society’s meetings are open to the public. Below is the diary of meetings for 2007 to which you are invited to attend. More information from Jean Saunders.

Saturday 3 March* Joint meeting with the Friends of Alfred Williams. Select an appropriate short extract [no longer than 5 minutes] for reading or just come along and listen.

Saturday 14 April* The Man on the Hill The showing of a two-part documentary film made by HTV in 1987 as part of the Jefferies’ centenary celebrations. Readings by Paul Scofield.

Saturday 12 May* The Weasel’s Story a walking story-telling event by Hilda Sheehan adapted from Wood Magic and in partnership with the Swindon Literary Festival event. Please book a place in advance as numbers are limited.

Saturday 28 July STUDY DAY. ‘Jefferies and children’s literature’. 10.30am to 4.30pm. Jefferies Museum.

Saturday 27th October Birthday Lecture. Details in the next newsletter.

Saturday 1 December* Reading of Paul Casimir’s [a Swindon librarian] paper entitled 'Richard Jefferies and Other Writers' and was given in February 1956.

*Meetings begin at 2.00pm in the Jefferies Museum, Marlborough Road, Swindon. See directions and map on page 7. There is no charge. The Museum will be open from 1.00pm on meeting days for visitors to explore.

The Museum is also open on the second Wednesday of the month throughout the year from 10am to 4pm as well as the usual Sunday arrangements from May to September [First and third Sundays from 2-5pm]. The “Footsteps” writers’ workshop is also held on the same Wednesdays.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Saturday 27th January 2007 commencing at 11am
Richard Jefferies Museum, Marlborough Road, Coate.

1. Welcome and apologies

2. Minutes of special meeting dated 10 December 2005 [see page 8]

3. Matters arising

4. Annual Report 2006

5. Treasurer’s Report [see page 10 ]

6. Appointment of Trustees

7. The Save Coate! campaign

8. Any Other Business

1pm Meeting ends

Opportunity to look around the Museum and grounds.

The Trustees who have held office for the last year are willing to stand again but additional nominations will be welcome. Any motions or resolutions for debate should be sent to the Hon. Sec. (Jean Saunders) before 3rd January, as should nominations for Trustees. Both should be proposed and seconded.
The entrance to the Jefferies’ Museum is opposite the petrol station and next to the Sun Inn public house at Coate Water roundabout. Car-parking is free at Coate Water Country Park – only 3 minutes walk away.
From Swindon town centre, there are several bus services that stop next to Coate roundabout. These include: Monday to Saturday - daytime: Numbers 10, 12, 13, 14 and 21. Monday to Saturday - evenings: Numbers 12, 13 and 14.

Minutes of the Special General meeting of the Jefferies Land Conservation Trust held at the Community Crossroads, Faringdon Road, Swindon on Saturday 10 December 2005

PRESENT: Marilyn Beale, Sue Birley, Keith Brain, Simon Bridewell, Margaret Fryer, Alan Hayward, Fay Le Coyte [part of meeting], Sandra Matthews, Jean Saunders and Gordon Wilson [representing Liddington Parish Council].
1. THE CHAIR
Alan Hayward was in the Chair and welcomed members to this first special meeting of the Trust. Introductions were made.
2. APOLOGIES
Apologies were given in respect of Roger Chacksfield, Patrick Esmonde, Philip Greig, Charmian Spickernell, Graham Walker and Martin Wicks.
3. UPDATE ON ACTIVITIES OF THE TRUST
a. Planning Inspector’s report: Swindon Local Plan 2011 inquiry. Jean Saunders highlighted the main recommendations made by the inspector related to Jefferies Land that would provide the Trust with scope to achieve its objectives to protect and enhance key features in the landscape and push for the most sympathetic design where development takes place.
b. Launch of the A5 pamphlets. The Trust had just produced two reports. The first “Coate and Richard Jefferies” by John Chandler provided information from Jefferies works relevant to the area and a history of Coate around 1880. The second pamphlet written by Trust members, “An alternative use for Jefferies Land” described the environmental qualities of the area and how the Trust might manage the area for the benefit of wildlife and local people. The pamphlets had been distributed to the media, Swindon Borough Council members, Anne Snelgrove MP and the National Trust. Further distribution of the Chandler pamphlet was discussed through schools, libraries and other events.
c. Jefferies milestone. English Heritage will revisit the Grade II listed building located along the old Coate lane in order to update the designation as proposed by the Trust in order to include reference to Jefferies and his quote in ‘Meadow Thoughts’. Sandra Matthews mentioned a nearby well in a private house that is still subject to legal use by neighbours. Trust to investigate whether it is a building worthy of listing.
d. Membership. The Trust has forty members mostly made up of individual and family members. Four organisations had registered. Funds had been set aside for a new membership leaflet.
e. Internet. A dedicated web site and news page had been set up for the Trust.
4. ACTING TREASURER’S REPORT. Sue Birley had produced an interim report to detail the accounts for the last three months. A dedicated Triodos Deposit Account had been opened in the Trust’s name to deposit funds. No money had been withdrawn from the account. Trust registration fees amounted to £308 and donations £1726.88. Some donations had been ring-fenced for a specific purpose. For example; to pay for the printing of the two A5 pamphlets, the Constitution, future membership leaflets and postage. Total expenditure amounted to £917.08. This included the fee to register the web site, for printing and postage and a small handling fee for the online Paypal account. This left a balance of £1,117.80. All incoming and outgoing transactions had been entered on an Excel spreadsheet. An auditor would be needed to examine the accounts at the end of the financial year. The Trust intends to register with Gift Aid and will approach members to seek authority to recover income tax paid on their individual contributions.
5. ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION. Having already placed a first and final draft constitution before members during the consultation stages, along with a mission and proposed policy statement, no member raised any further matters for discussion. The document was drawn from a model recommended by the Charity Commission. Sue Birley proposed the formal adoption of the draft Constitution, seconded by Simon Bridewell. The motion was carried.

6. ELECTION OF TRUSTEES
Marilyn Beale, Sue Birley, Simon Bridewell, Alan Hayward and Jean Saunders had been nominated to act as Trustees. The role of Trustees was explained. The Chair invited other members to put their names forward but no others were forthcoming. It was proposed by Marilyn Beale and seconded by Sue Birley that Alan Hayward should be elected Honorary Chairman. This motion was carried. Sandra Matthews proposed and Keith Brain seconded that Jean Saunders should be nominated Honorary Secretary. This was carried. Marilyn Beale proposed Sue Birley as Honorary Treasurer, seconded by Gordon Wilson; it was carried. Jean Saunders proposed Simon Bridewell as a Trustee, seconded by Alan Hayward; it was carried. Marilyn Beale was proposed as a Trustee by Sue Birley seconded by Sandra Matthews. It was carried. All Trustees would serve until the first Annual General Meeting that would be held in a years time.
7. EXAMINER OF ACCOUNTS
John Stretton had been approached and had agreed to examine the accounts at the end of the financial year, accepted as 30 November 2006. Jean Saunders proposed that John be elected to serve next year. Alan Hayward seconded the proposal. It was carried.
8. TRIODOS BANK
It was proposed by Alan Hayward and seconded by Keith Brain that a deposit account should be opened with Triodos Bank in the name of the Trust. This was carried. It was moved by Marilyn Beale that the Honorary Trustees should all act as signatories to authorise transactions from the bank and that any two signatures would be required. This motion was seconded by Gordon Wilson and carried. As Jean Saunders and Sue Birley were already registered with Triodos to operate the Trust’s opening account, the bank would be provided with a copy of the new rules, list of Trustees’ names and a request to add Alan Hayward as a third signatory.
9. CHARITY COMMISSION DECLARATION
The Trustees signed the Constitution and a declaration that each would act in accordance with Charity Commission’s guidelines. It was approved that an application would be made to register the Trust with the Charity Commission.
10. ANY OTHER BUSINESS
Main proposals for future work
a) Growing the membership This would now be a priority for the Trust by firstly approaching like-minded community groups along with councillors and nearby parish councils and wards. Selected corporate bodies in Swindon would also be approached. Alan agreed to invite all Borough Councillors and Swindon’s MPs to join the Trust.
b) Education and promotion The Chandler report would be further promoted through schools, colleges and libraries. The Trust would provide speakers as appropriate.
c) Eco-bash Support the Eco-bash in April 2006 and similar events. Lynn Forrester also manages a Quality of Life awards scheme; explore opportunities for funding events or educational materials through the award.
d) Grants Discussions about potential grant sources were explored such as the Heritage Lottery Fund and local grants. Marilyn receives news of potential grants. Goal for Trust: to purchase Coate Water buffer land to put into conservation trust and focus on best use of Coate Museum and grounds that are suffering from neglect.
e) Planning process To respond to any planning matter related to Jefferies Land in order to secure as much nature reserve and landscape value as possible and to push for best environmental and sympathetic design.

The meeting ended at 2.15pm. Jean Saunders,
Hon. Sec. 11/12/2005

Treasurer's Report for year ended 30 November 2006

This is the first official statement of our accounts and extends beyond the year to include a period of over 3 months grace when the Trust was in the process of growing the membership but had not adopted a formal constitution. The figures set out below show the Receipts and Payments from August 2005 to 30 November 2006.

Thanks to members, who have largely met their own out-of-pocket expenses incurred on behalf of the Trust, the expenses do not reflect the real expenditure of the organisation. In addition to this, some generous gifts have been donated to the Trust that have paid directly for the printing of pamphlets and leaflets.

The Trust originally opened a deposit account with Triodos Bank on the basis that any transactions require the authorisation of two trustees out of three registered to sign. The account has been free of charge to use but withdrawals can only be authorised through BACs whereby payments are made direct to the payees bank account. This has been useful for paying in monies but for the purchase of goods, it is not practical. I would advise the setting up of a current account with an approved Bank at the earliest convenience. No interest was received on the sums deposited in the account.

The expense of £100 paid to ENTRUST was in order to register as an Environmental Body that can acquire funding under the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme. Regrettably the Trust has been unsuccessful so far in acquiring funding from this source.

Royal Mail awarded £500 to the Trust in order to purchase plants and garden materials for the grounds of the Richard Jefferies’ Museum. The sum does not appear on the balance sheet as the grant was given retrospectively on the production of receipts whilst individual members paid for the initial purchases and were reimbursed later. Again this reflected the difficulties of using our current banking arrangements with Triodos.

The Gift-Aid scheme, whereby the Trust is able to re-claim the income tax paid at basic rate to the Trust for membership fees and donations, will soon add £559.69 to the funds. It is anticipated that the Inland Revenue will pay this amount into the bank account soon.

The sums currently held in the Triodos Bank account amount to £1,524 but this sum includes some membership fees for 2007 that have been paid through Paypal whilst £12.50 is owing to the Secretary for expenses incurred and not yet claimed. There were no other debts due to the Trust at 30 November 2006.

The expenses and receipts are being audited by John Stretton even though this is neither a constitutional nor Charity Commission requirement . His findings will be reported to the AGM.

Sue Birley
Honorary Treasurer

Council scupper bid for funds to improve Jefferies Museum

2006-07-24T08:52:00.000+01:00

PRESS RELEASE

JEFFERIES LAND CONSERVATION TRUST

Council scupper bid for funds to improve Jefferies Museum

Efforts to raise money from the Heritage Lottery Fund, to restore the grounds and out-buildings of the Richard Jefferies Museum at Coate, have been dealt a mighty blow through lack of support and commitment to the project by Swindon Borough Council.

The Jefferies Land Conservation Trust submitted a bid for funding in May after an officer from the national lottery body had visited the Museum and expressed delight at the proposals. Plans included restoring the little dairy, the pig-sties and barn as well as planting up the grounds with wild-life friendly flowers, trees and shrubs.

As Swindon Borough Council own the house, where nature writer Richard Jefferies [1848-1887] was born and raised, part of the requirement for funding depended on the Trust securing a 15 year lease and an access agreement. The council has been aware of this since March but no progress has been made to secure any written support for the proposals.

Jean Saunders, Secretary of the Trust said:

"We are bitterly disappointed to miss out on the funding but we will try again. The Museum has been transformed since volunteers have been working in the grounds. Apart from a grant of £500 from Royal Mail to buy plants, people have been willing to dip into their own pockets and give up their free time to beautify the place."

"I don't get it. The Council is quick to react to accusations that Swindon is a cultural desert. Yet on their doorstep they own a charming little Museum that was the home of one of England's finest nature writers but they won't spend a penny on it and do nothing to assist those who are prepared to help."

The Museum, on the corner of Day House Lane and the Marlborough Road at Coate, is opened by the Richard Jefferies Society on the first and third Sundays of the month between 2-5pm until the end of September and the second Wednesday of the month from 10am-4pm throughout the year.

SUMMER NEWSLETTER 2006

2006-06-06T10:39:00.000+01:00

The last six months in a nut-shell – pain, gain and rain…

It seems that since our official inauguration last December, time has been taken up with some tedious jobs that had to be done. The Jefferies Land Conservation Trust [JLCT] has been accepted as a registered charity and as an Environmental Body able to apply for Landfill Tax Credits for approved environmental projects. Also, we have registered for Gift Aid. Many thanks to those of you who have filled in Gift Aid authorisations that will increase your donation’s value by about a quarter. If there is a gift-aid form included with this newsletter, it means that you haven’t filled in a form yet but there is still time to do so! There have been some extremely generous donations made by Members and, all in all, we have not wasted a penny.

We have submitted applications for funding from the Lottery Heritage Fund and from Biffawaste for up to £100,000 with a view to restoring the grounds and out-buildings attached to Richard Jefferies’ birthplace and home at Coate. This project would go someway to meeting our own aims whilst enhancing the environmental, historic and educational potential of the Museum. The application process has included umpteen meetings, books of forms to complete, surveys and a reluctance on the part of Swindon Borough Council [SBC] to help, even though they aren’t interested in doing the work themselves. JLCT lodged a formal complaint about the state of the Museum property that has belonged to SBC since 1926. During this time, the council has pulled down buildings, sold off much of the land to development and attempted to destroy more, albeit that Sir John Betjeman, Spike Milligan et al stepped in with a major national appeal that saved the barn/pig sties and dairy from certain destruction. The pretty little thatched cottage, that has been used to house the caretaker, has been empty for over ten years whilst SBC’s answer to many of the repeated attacks by vandals is just to board up doors and windows. On top of this, for the last 20 years, volunteers from the Richard Jefferies Society have kept the Museum open to the public. They are expected to clean the place in the bargain. If you haven’t ever visited the Museum for a while, you are in for a treat [see enclosed leaflet for more information].

With this history in mind, our application for funding is very much in line with the Richard Jefferies Society’s hopes for the Museum. The aim is to restore the out-buildings to how they might have looked in Jefferies’ time and house appropriate farming equipment to demonstrate their use. The gardens would reflect Jefferies’ passion for nature and restore many of the features flagged up in his writing. Finally a two-year part-time post would be created to ensure that the Museum is opened on a more regular basis and that appropriate workshops can be run related to nature, literature and social history.

It will take until about October before we find out if our bid for funds is successful and assuming that we succeed, we shall need to obtain listed building consent for work on the dairy, barn, walls, paths and fences and an agreement with SBC to provide JLCT with a 15 year lease. The last requirement is likely to be the most difficult but we have already put the wheels in motion to achieve this.

In the meantime, thanks to the assistance of volunteers drawn from both the JLCT and the Richard Jefferies Society, the gardens of the Museum are already taking shape. Whilst brambles and nettles can be good for wildlife, too much of the wrong thing in the wrong place can be regarded as pollution! This was the case at the Jefferies Museum where everything was smothered. Carmela Masi secured a grant from Royal Mail to buy plants and trees worth £500. Now there is colour in the flower beds where there was none before whilst old English varieties of fruit trees have been planted in the orchard.

If anyone can help spend some time gardening or donate plants that the slugs won’t chew up, we would like to hear from you. Alternatively, if you would like to make a specific donation for plants, please contact us at the registered address at the end of the newsletter. The Richard Jefferies Society would also value your assistance with regard to helping out at the Museum. The more volunteers, the more that the Museum can be opened up. Please contact us even if you can only help a little. Remember that wise saying by Edmunde Burke: Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.

Simon Bridewell is hoping to engage about 40 volunteers from Nationwide to work in the grounds on a 2-3 day project in the late summer. This will provide a great boost to the project regardless of whether we are successful in our bid for funds.

In the meantime, we can’t thank volunteers enough for all their help so far and for the rain that has assisted in the care of our plants and trees.

The Save Coate campaign.

There has been a bit of a breathing space with regard to the Coate development proposals. Over a year later, the planning application to build nearly 2000 houses, university buildings and business premises next to Coate Water still sits on the planners’ desk. Whilst the principle for development has been accepted by various government planning inspectors, the planning application goes against what the inspectors view as acceptable development of the land. The Swindon Gateway Consortium, made up of Redrow Homes, Persimmon Homes, University of Bath and the Swindon & Marlborough NHS Trust, are expected to withdraw or amend their current outrageous plans that do not provide for adequate protection of Coate Water nature reserve, nor the open countryside views to and from the Downs nor other ecological or historic features, whilst Richard Jefferies is still treated as a nonentity. If English Nature’s buffer is accepted as a minimum for the Coate Water nature reserve, whilst it does not meet our requirements, it might give us some sort of bargaining tool to ensure that this land is managed and protected in order that it enhances the Site of Special Scientific Interest forever and isn’t used as an excuse to expand as soon as the developers run out of space. JLCT has asked that any land provided for buffer use, whether this relates to the three nature reserves in the area, the otter streams, the archaeological features or the views, should be given to JLCT. We have also lodged a formal objection to SBC with regard to their draft planning guidance on seeking developer contributions. The council see development as a means to fund other community facilities in the town. Fair enough, but with regard to their requirements for leisure and cultural facilities, the Jefferies Museum and Coate Water aren’t even mentioned. Keep a close watch on the Save Coate web site www.savecoate.org.uk and the links to keep up to date with campaign news.

Alternative Use of Jefferies Land

The response from councillors with regard to the Trust’s proposal for the alternative use of the Coate development area has been met with stunned silence. There has been no feedback at all and no interest in our proposals. Alan Hayward asked this question to Cabinet on 18th January 2006.

The Jefferies Land Conservation Trust objected to the proposed changes to the Structure Plan related to major development at Coate. The policy conflicted with the Trust's alternative proposals for the area. The Structure Plan Authorities rebutted the objection on the grounds that the document had not been subjected to public consultation. Albeit that the vision has undergone limited consultation and the final copy has been sent to all councillors, we ask whether councillors have read the pamphlet and would they not agree that the proposals contained within the document would offer Swindon a far greater vision for the future of Swindon than that offered by the Swindon Gateway Consortium?
Given that the Structure Plan Authorities did not go through a debate about whether Coate was a suitable location for a university, housing and offices before committing the land to development in the Structure Plan review, are the views of over 26,000 people who have signed a petition in objection to the proposals to be ignored?

Essentially we were told by Councillor Bluh that our vision for the land was commendable, but it was pie-in-the-sky. As the only obstruction is developers’ greed and the University of Bath’s dogmatic stance, we see our proposals as not only practical but vital to the good health of Swindon.

Membership

Given that we haven’t had a chance to promote a membership drive, it is good to report that we now have nearly seventy members. Some are local, some national and two members live in Canada. The John Chandler report on Coate and Richard Jefferies that JLCT paid to have printed has been widely circulated and has been well-received. Copies can be picked up from the Jefferies’ Museum and the Coate Water Rangers’ centre along with membership forms.

Thanks to Patrick Esmonde in Canada, the JLCT has forged a relationship with the Biennial John Burroughs Nature Writing Conference held at the Oneonta Campus of the State University of New York. The Nature Writing Section of the English Department at Oneonta sponsors these Seminars. John Burroughs (1837-1921) is a renowned American nature writer whose works, like Jefferies, were topographical and linked closely to the landscape of his particular region, i.e. the Catskill Mountain area in mid NY State. Patrick encouraged John Chandler to submit his report to conference. We were delighted to learn that the paper was accepted by conference but, unfortunately, John is not in a position to be able to present it in person.

Grant to plant

2006-04-28T16:23:00.000+01:00

The Royal Mail has awarded the Trust a grant of £500 in order to buy flowers, herbs, shrubs, bulbs and fruit trees for planting out in the grounds of Jefferies Museum at Coate.

A work party started the beautifying process on Sunday 23rd April.

Watch this space to see the transformation.

MYSTERY METAL ARMY FOUND AT COATE FARM

2006-03-28T14:38:00.000+01:00

PRESS RELEASE

MYSTERY METAL ARMY FOUND AT COATE FARM

An army of metal figurines was found in the gardens of Richard Jefferies’ old house and Museum at Coate on 21 March 2006. It is a mystery how they got there or whether they were left as a tribute to the Victorian writer whose work is still much admired today.

Thirty small figurines, an inch or so in height, of archers and warriors armed with pikes, some on horseback, were discovered behind a Copper Beech tree under leaf mould; each one separately wrapped in a small plastic bag and, almost certainly, left deliberately.

Jean Saunders, secretary of both the Jefferies Land Conservation Trust and the Richard Jefferies Society made the discovery during a litter pick of the grounds. She said:

“The Copper Beech was one of Jefferies’ favourites along with the Mulberry tree nearby. I was partly admiring the trees and the bulbs in flower when I spotted a bit of plastic partly buried in the ground. On closer inspection, I found a small hoard of little bags each containing Roman-looking figures. They are not that old but the steel pins have gone rusty. My gut feeling is that someone made a special pilgrimage to Jefferies’ home and left these figures as a memorial to a much-loved and greatly admired writer.”

Richard Jefferies (1) wrote at least three novels that featured battles. The best known is Bevis , a boys adventure story based around Coate where the local lads have a mock Roman war. A Summer House, that no longer exists but which was next to the Copper Beech [2], was the place where Bevis used “an old chair- the back gone-which did very well for a table” to kneel down and draw his map of the campaign. In After London the main character, Felix, makes a voyage across a lake, based on Coate Water, in a land where people have relapsed into barbarism after London is destroyed by pollution.

The figures are now inside the Museum where visitors can use their own imagination as to how they got there.

The Museum is open by special arrangement by contacting Mrs Saunders on 01793 783040 but the first official opening day is Sunday 7th May between 2pm to 5pm.

Editor’s notes:

(1) Richard Jefferies [1848-1887] lived at the old house at Coate until his late twenties. His works are still much read today. Q.D. Leavis, the leading literary authority, described Jefferies as a ‘many sided genius’. He is cited by historians as an authority upon agriculture and rural life in Victorian England; he is anthologised and discussed in major studies of mysticism; he is known as the author of one of the great novels for boys, as well as the author of several highly original novels for adult readers; and he is recognised as one of the greatest nature writers in the language. The area around is home at Coate has been known for years as ‘Jefferies Land'.

(2) There is a painting available in electronic format of the trees and Summer House as they were in Jefferies' time.

Help save Jefferies Land from Swindon Borough Council

2006-03-01T13:08:00.000Z

PROPOSED MODIFICATIONS TO THE SWINDON BOROUGH LOCAL PLAN THAT RELATE TO COATE BUILDING PROPOSALS

Apologies if you find this briefing difficult to follow. There is no simple way to explain the situation that currently affects Jefferies Land.

You have until 4.30pm on Wednesday April 5th 2006 to send in any representations to Swindon Borough Council’s Forward Planning, FREEPOST SCE5251, Premier House, Station Road, Swindon SN1 1TZ.

Click

here

to go to the Council's main Local Plan web page if you want to read the documents.

The form to submit your comments should be available at Wat Tyler House and Premier House. You can download the

form

as a small pdf file or you can use the Council's

online service

.

Each representation made in support or in objection requires the use of a separate form. If you cover all the matters raised in this briefing, you need to obtain about 10 forms.

For more information read more or e-mail jefferiesland@tiscali.co.uk

If nothing else, please send in an objection to Modification 45

++++
Object to Modification No 40

I am one of nearly 30,000 people who signed the Save Coate petition that states: “We, the undersigned, believe that development of the Coate area will have a devastating impact on wildlife at Coate Water nature reserve. It would desecrate an area that has strong historic, literary and recreational attractions and destroy the last remaining pocket of unspoilt countryside close to Swindon. Coate Water Site of Special Scientific Interest contributes to the very best of the rich variety and abundance of wildlife that makes England's nature special and distinct from any other country in the world. We demand that a one kilometre buffer of land is left undeveloped next to Coate Water. We call upon Swindon Borough Council to say NO to development at Coate.”

The number of people who have signed our petition has escalated more than twofold and fourfold respectively since the Local Plan Inquiry and the Wiltshire Structure Plan Examination in Public. The Structure Plan Panel expressed dismay that the public had not been listened to as part of the Structure Plan review whilst the Local Plan Inspector believed that his hands were tied to the Structure Plan decision and the support of Swindon Borough Council over choice of site. This makes a mockery of the development plan process.

I was absolutely clear that the development proposals was not to build on Coate Water Country Park but next to it. However, many people assume that the fields surrounding Coate Water belong to the council and are part of the Country Park; .particularly the Day House Farm field that abuts the northern end of the park. If there was any confusion caused by calling the development area "Coate", this was the reason. To now call the Development Area “Commonhead” causes greater confusion. It is geographically inaccurate. I object to the change of name from Coate to Commonhead – a matter that was NEVER raised as an objection either as part of the Structure or Local Plan process.
**
Community Participation is now the buzz word in government. There has been precious little of that in Swindon with regard to the Coate proposals that have been forced upon us. However as the Brighton and Hove City Council versus University of Brighton planning appeal decision indicates, it is never too late for the Council to make amends. If Swindon Borough Council can reject the emerging land-use policy for housing on Martin’s Farm at this late stage in the development plan process when, as far as we are aware, this was not a contentious issue at the emerging Local Plan stage, it has the power to do likewise with regard to the policies that affect Coate. It would be far better to withdraw now than to allow desecration of land that will affect the most popular part of Swindon and its main recreational attraction. Please delete DS3
**
I object to changes to criterion [b] that fails to take account of the Inspector’s recommended wording. The Inspector notes in paragraph 5.2 of his report that “Its [the University of Bath] intentions are also to retain its facility at Oakfield”. This statement was echoed at the Wiltshire Structure Plan EIP when the Panel reported in paragraph 5.119 of their report: “We heard from the University of Bath that they are committed to maintaining a presence at the Oakfield site”. As such there is no justification for the LPA to delete the Inspector’s recommendation for policy DS3 at point [b] that states that Oakfield Campus will be retained. This echoes what the University of Bath has said that they want. The Oakfield Campus is now important to the Parks area – local people lost their secondary school with a promise of better-things-to-come by way of the University. Its retention is vital. We ask that the Inspector’s recommended wording for DS3 [b] is retained in full.
**
I object to changes to criterion [d]. The planning inspector recommended that 5ha of land should be set aside for hospital expansion. He was informed by the agents for the Swindon & Marlborough NHS Trust that this was all that would be required in the long-term. At the time of the planning application for the hospital at Commonhead, the Trust insisted that the site was large enough to meet their needs – how quickly they were proved wrong despite the public uproar that the hospital would be too small. So why should we now believe the Trust when they say that they will need 5.5ha by 2026? Some hospital expansion would be acceptable given better architecture and height restrictions than currently employed on site. We ask that the Local Planning Authority increases the allocation by 5ha beyond the Inspector’s recommendation to meet the needs of a growing elderly population and a possible town expansion that would add tens of thousands of new houses compared to now.
**
I object to proposed modification related to DS3 [i] and request the addition of one word to clarify the Inspector’s use of the word “respect” It is not clear that the policy refers to respecting the rural landscape and open countryside. The Great Western Hospital is now a very visible building from the listed viewpoints identified by the Inspector both within the Country Park and the Downs. Adding the word RURAL after the word RESPECT would clarify that it is the natural rather than the built environment that needs to be respected.
**
I object to criterion [j] that does not accord with the Inspector’s recommendation. The policy should include the protection and enhancement of “identified foraging areas” of protected species. The point of Local Plan policy is to identify key areas that should be explored as part of any planning permission consideration. As such foraging areas SHOULD be identified as part of planning policy.

+++++
Object to Modification No 45

Paragraphs 10.2 to 10.10 of the Inspector’s report goes into great detail about the need to protect the rural landscape and he stresses the importance of keeping Coate Water as a “Country Park and not an urban park” [paragraph 10.6].

In addition, the Inspector made it very clear [paragraph 10.7] that tree-planting next to the Country Park’s eastern edge, particularly at the northern end, would not be acceptable in mitigation against development. He stressed the importance of the rural open views from Coate Water that would be blotted out with tree planting.

These recommendations should be reflected in the supporting text of the Plan whilst Appendix 3 requires more description to indicate how rural views will be respected where buildings are allowed.

The lame description proposed by SBC in modified paragraph 1.16.9 - “A number of walks have views and routes across and around the site, the most important of which should be retained.”- falls far short of what is required.

Suggest adding, at the very minimum, the Inspector’s wording [paragraph 10.8] that “ any development should be subservient to the views, retaining the visual link between the Park and its rural surroundings and maintaining its rural character… strategic planting does not provide a solution”.

With reference to the width of buffer proposed by English Nature, to protect and enhance Coate Water Site of Special Scientific Interest, the figures quoted by English Nature, to which the Inspector refers, were their MINIMUM required. Originally English Nature requested a PRECAUTIONARY buffer of 500m at which point they were told to look again by the developers! As such the word “precautionary” should be replaced with MINIMUM in the sentence that reads: English Nature favour a precautionary buffer zone of between 100 and 200 metres in width” etc. whilst the text might refer to English Nature’s 500m precautionary buffer. Ask that the words “250m wide” is added before the “D-shaped field” to clarify English Nature’s minimum requirement for this field.

It needs repeating that we believe that the buffer around Coate Water should be up to 1km wide in order to protect the literary, landscape, historic, cultural and ecological qualities of the area and we shall continue to say this until we are blue in the face.

Finally for this section, point out that SBC has failed to take on board the Inspector’s recommendation related to the buffer set out in paragraph 10.18 of his report.

The Inspector says that “Appendix 3 should be expanded to indicate that the buffer to be established before development commences and how it will be protected and managed”. The Borough Council has only talked about the size of buffer that might be required and not the management of it.

Say that the Inspector’s requirement MUST be laid out in Appendix 3. Say that a statement should make clear that development may have to be delayed for several years in order to allow buffer planting and enhancement of the habitat to be established before any building work commences in order to benefit protected species. Say that a condition of development should require any buffer land to be given over to the Jefferies Land Conservation Trust as part of the management process.

++++
Object to Modification 42

This section is related to the phasing in of any proposed town centre University of Bath [UoB] faculty. Unfortunately the Inspector has agreed with SBC that the UoB should not have to phase in the Arts faculty [or any other town centre stand-alone faculty] to tie in with the development of the Coate campus. This is staggering given the importance attached to the presence of a town centre faculty as part of the Urban Regeneration scheme that has been recognised by the Inspector and the Borough Council as vital. Originally it was proposed that the central faculty should be built before Coate but the developers lobbied to get this criterion deleted. The Borough Council has now couched the policy in terms that the town centre faculty should be “phased for completion by the time the campus at Commonhead is fully developed”. This leaves the question of the Central faculty in the air and in doubt as the Coate campus may never be “fully developed”. The plan to accommodate 10,000 students at the Campus is a long term goal for the UoB. The Planning Inspector suggested that a time delivery for the central faculty should be set as a condition to any planning permission granted for the campus. 5 years is often the period set in planning conditions for things to happen. Suggest that this criterion, [ie a condition to build a central faculty or faculties within a given time frame, say 5 years, of granting planning permission for the Coate campus], should be added to Appendix 3. Say that the words “fully developed” give too much lea-way given SBC’s commitment to the urban regeneration scheme and the importance of the central faculty.

++++
Object to Modification 54 on grounds of omission of Inspector’s comment in paragraph 10.18

The Inspector said “that further consideration be given to whether any additional facility beyond the performing arts centre should be located within the town centre without undermining the benefits of focussing activity on the main campus”. SBC has opted to pursue this recommendation with the UoB outside of the Local Plan process. This isn’t good enough. There should be a statement in the Local Plan that refers to an active commitment to look for other University stand-alone facilities in the town centre in the light of the importance of higher education as part of the town centre regeneration scheme and as set down in Regional Planning Guidance for the south west.

+++++
Objection on grounds of omission to Coate development. Inspector’s ref: paragraph 10.11

There is no mention whatsoever of Richard Jefferies and the importance of the area to him in the emerging local plan apart from using the word “cultural interests” in proposed modification 45 that can be supported. Even the Inspector mentioned Richard Jefferies albeit that he said that Jefferies was no Wordsworth or Hardy. However this is a matter of opinion and open to challenge. His view is not based on any evidence. The importance of Jefferies' literary landscape at Coate has been flagged up yet again recently [Spring 2006] in another national magazine,

This England

. A recent article by Simon Barnes, that appeared in the Times on 7 January 2006 also echoed the same sentiments that Jefferies literary landscape must be protected because of his importance as a topographical writer. It would appear that everyone appreciates Jefferies apart from planners and Swindon Borough Council.

Say that you want the Local Plan Inquiry to be re-opened to look at the impact of development on what is left of Jefferies Land that has already suffered as a result of creeping development of Coate farm. Say that the Jefferies' importance has not been investigated by Swindon Borough Council or the developers interested in the site and that the land has not been subject to the same degree of scrutiny as other potential constraints.

Ask that Appendix 3 should list a criteria that any Environmental Impact Assessment should study the impact of development on the literary quality of the landscape with reference to Richard Jefferies and how any adverse affects might be mitigated. State that no study to this effect has been conducted by the Borough Council or the developers and that, in view of the international importance of this writer, this is a serious failing of the entire Local Plan policy related to the Coate development.

++++

Objection to modification 51; Urban Inset map that identifies 3 new areas for development along Day House Lane.

The changes proposed to add three hatched areas for inclusion under policy DS3 are said to be the result of the Inspector’s recommendation to support PANs 467, 468 and 469. As these Borough Council changes were never subject to public consultation or made known to the general public, I have no idea what was proposed but object to the changes now. The areas that would be included under the Coate development policy cover listed buildings [the out-buildings] at Day House Farm and at Badbury Wick. It includes Medieval settlement land at Badbury Wick that should be covered by ENV5 but isn’t. Finally it includes the Scheduled Ancient Monument of the Neolithic Stone Circle that IS protected by ENV5! . These areas are not subject to negotiation and cannot be developed regardless of whether the house-builders now own the land. These areas need to be excluded from policy DS3 to protect their archaeological, architectural and historic importance.
++++++++
And as a postscript, given again that we are totally opposed to all this, it is difficult to support any of the proposed modifications related to Coate even though, if the development goes ahead, the modifications may need supporting in their own right.

So if you can grit your teeth, you might support the following. You don’t have to give a reason for supporting the modification.

Modification 44 ties in any employment use of land to be linked to the university. The developers don’t like this modification so they will object.

Modification 45 supports protecting environmental interests of the land and buffers and “historic and cultural interests at various locations within the site.” This can be looked at as an opportunity to flag up Jefferies’ interests.

Modification 46 supports the need for a thorough Environmental Impact Assessment of the proposals and the provision of green corridors etc.

Modification 50 supports buffer zones of at least 30m for County Wildlife Sites and at least 10m to water courses. The County Wildlife Sites are Day House Copse and Burderop Wood North. There is also the Nature reserve at Coate Water but this will be subject to its own wider buffer requirement.

Modification 52 supports the removal of a field of archaeological importance from development land at Badbury Wick.

A picture paints a thousand words

2006-01-31T14:36:00.000Z

On a bitterly cold day, a dedicated team of nearly 20 volunteers gave up their Sunday to start clearing the brambles and nettles at Coate Farm.

This old door was found hidden behind the overgrowth.

Doesn't it say it all?

Anyone prepared to help return Jefferies' home to its former glory should contact us. More work days are planned.

30 years - History repeats itself

2006-01-04T16:39:00.000Z

Coate Farmhouse and its out-buildings are in a very poor state at the moment. The Trust has lodged a formal complaint with Swindon Borough Council, the owners of the Grade II listed building, asking that restoration is undertaken now.

There was a similar appeal launched in 1975 by Sir John Betjeman. Mark Daniel's sketch of the farmhouse and outbuildings is illustrated above.

COATE FARM APPEAL 1975

An appeal by Sir John Betjeman with
Richard Adams
Ronald Blythe
Robert Dougall
Spike Milligan
Johnny Morris
Henry Williamson – Vice-president Richard Jefferies Society

Coate Farm, near Swindon, where writer Richard Jefferies was born and spent most of his short life, is in great danger through decay. Several thousand Pounds are needed urgently if the outbuildings are to be saved. This place is important for two reasons:

First, most of the remaining buildings have survived from before the middle of the last century, gaining importance from Jefferies’ descriptions of the farm, the countryside and its people during a period critical to English rural life;

Secondly, Jefferies’ work has been a source of inspiration to imaginative people for a hundred years and has profoundly affected modern country writing.

Parts of the farmhouse date from about 1700 but the outbuildings were constructed by Jefferies’ father, James, about 1840, largely with his own hands. At a time when agricultural depression was forcing many small dairy-farmers off the land, James hung on grimly – and built to last. Eventually he was ruined but his patience with young Richard, who preferred scribbling in notebooks to physical work, gave the world a great writer. The old buildings stand as a monument to a brave farmer and his son, whose vision helped inspire some of the best literature in the world.

It sometimes happens that Scheduled buildings are restored by some official body particularly if, like Coate Farm, they are actually owned by the local authority. However, the Council cannot now spend money on work to which it is not already committed – and the buildings cannot wait. Private support is the only hope.

I would be most grateful if you would help to save Coate Farm by sending a donation to: The Coate Farm Restoration Fund
c/o Mark Daniel etc

2006-01-03T10:32:00.000Z

Western Daily Press

BATTLE OF THE LITERARY GIANTS (OR WAS ONE A PYGMY?)

3 January 2006

A Row over the merits of 19th century West Country literary giants Thomas Hardy and Richard Jefferies has gone all the way to Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott. It was sparked after Planning Inspector David Fenton's views on eminent Victorian nature writer Richard Jefferies enraged an appreciation group formed in his home town of Swindon.

The Richard Jefferies Society is fighting to prevent wildlife-rich countryside, known as Jefferies Land, from being destroyed by a £500million development on the edge of Swindon.

A university, offices and 1,800 homes are proposed for 500 acres of fields around the hamlet of Coate, an area objectors say was immortalized by the writings of Jefferies, who lived there. The society insists the area is part of Swindon's cultural heritage and as such should be preserved.

But after examining its objections, Mr Fenton felt the land could be developed. His report said: "To some people Jefferies and his works are an integral part of the literary landscape of Britain.

"However, it seems to me that he is not known or thought of in the same way as more major figures such as Hardy or Wordsworth." The society has now written to Mr Fenton's boss Mr Prescott, challenging his decision that Jefferies writings should have no bearing on the proposals.

The letter points out that Jefferies (18481887) was recently voted "by far the most frequently nominated author" when he came third in a national poll to find Britain's most popular nature writer.

This, the society notes, was higher than both Wordsworth and Hardy, whose works were also inspired by the West Country.

Jefferies society member Jean Saunders wrote: "We are dismayed to read the inspector's views related to the lack of weight he has afforded to the special quality of the literary landscape of land at Coate." She said Jefferies Land is a "most valued landscape" in terms of planning policy guidelines regarding the quality of life and the environment in rural areas.

THE letter goes on: "Given that Swindon has such a poor cultural image in Britain, when it has such an important and influential figurehead born and bred at Coate, we are at a loss to understand the inspector's point of view.

"We request that you might explore our concerns as we believe a major constraint to development has been summarily dismissed." To help guide Mr Prescott's deliberations, the society has sent him a copy of a new publication, Coate and Richard Jefferies by John Chandler. The Save Coate campaign has collected 26,000 signatures in its battle to protect Jefferies Land, which lies next to Coate Water Country Park.

In September, campaigners launched the Jefferies Land Conservation Trust which is seeking an alterative use for the rural site, situated near Junction 15 of the M4 and the Great Western Hospital.

The trust says the land should be preserved "for visitors to enjoy a special rural climate, and as a centre for study of the environment and historic landscapes". But the University of Bath in Swindon says it is the only viable site for its campus and denies campaigners' claims that it could be built in the town centre.

It has linked up with developers whose proposed 1,800 homes and commercial park will finance the infrastructure for the university, including sewers and roads. This Gateway scheme will also help fast-growing Swindon fill its Government housing quota for the next few years, says the council.

Richard Jefferies (1848-1887)
BEST known for his prolific and sensitive writing on natural history, village life and agriculture in late Victorian England, Jefferies' career also revealed a many-sided author who was something of an enigma.

Some associate him with the children's classic Bevis or the strange futuristic fantasy After London. But his finest work, including his autobiography The Story of my Heart, was inspired by the countryside around Coate, near Swindon, where he grew up and spent much of his life.

He is cited as an inspiration to a number of better known writers including John Fowles, who lived in Dorset, and A A 'Christopher Robin' Milne.

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)
Poet and novelist born in Dorchester, Hardy created the literary region of Wessex, based in an around Dorset, where many of his stories are set.

His career as writer spanned more than 50 years, during which he wrote classic novels including Far From the Madding Crowd, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, The Mayor of Casterbridge and Jude The Obscure.

His novels bravely challenged many of the sexual and religious conventions of the Victorian age, and dared to present a bleak view of human nature.

In his poems, Hardy depicted rural life without sentimentality - his mood was often stoic and gloomy.

Trust publish their vision for Jefferies Land at Coate and a history of the area

2005-12-03T11:14:00.000Z

Jefferies Land Conservation Trust

PRESS RELEASE

3 December 2005

Trust publish their vision for Jefferies Land at Coate and a history of the area

The Jefferies Land Conservation Trust has published two pamphlets that provide a guide to the literary and historic interest in land at Coate and their vision for an alternative use of this special area.

The first pamphlet entitled Coate and Richard Jefferies was written by a local historian. John Chandler, who lives near Salisbury, examines the links between the Victorian author Richard Jefferies and the land where Jefferies was born and raised at Coate. The report discusses this area in the context of the life and career of Jefferies, its topography and character during the period of his acquaintance with it, and major references to the area in his works. It concludes with an assessment of Jefferies as a topographical writer, as formed by literary opinion since his death, and considers the importance of the Coate area in his works.

The second pamphlet An alternative use for Jefferies Land forms the basis of the Trust’s vision [1] for the area. It looks at the recent history and how the existing fields and buildings could be put to best use for the future economic, educational, social and environmental well-being of Swindon and its residents.

Jean Saunders, Secretary of the Trust said:

“We are delighted to make these pamphlets available to the public who might not be well acquainted with the special qualities of the area. At the same time, we want to ensure that the greatest assets are protected and enhanced in order that future generations of Swindonians can derive as much pleasure from them as their ancestors.”

The pamphlets can be obtained by sending postage stamps to the value of £1 to Pear Tree Cottage, Longcot, SN7 7SS. Copies can be picked up on Saturday 10th December at 1pm at the Community Crossroads, the former railway museum in Faringdon Road, where the Trust will be holding a special meeting.

For more information contact Jean Saunders on 01793 783040

-ENDS-

Editor’s notes
[1] The main elements of the Trust’s Vision are to:

§ maintain the landscape setting of Coate Water in the countryside; to preserve the adjoining Jefferies land as an ideal place for "rambles" to see the links to Jefferies' writing; and .... just simply a "place" to relax and enjoy.

§ enhance the biodiversity of the Site of Special Scientific Interest and the nature reserves at Coate Water, Day House Copse and Burderop Wood North. Extensive new habitats and wildlife corridors would be created, stressing the ecological value of streams, trees and hedges, etc.

§ provide a centre to study and appreciate literary landscapes as an inspiration to UK writers; the history of British nature writing; and to include a special focus on Richard Jefferies' key role in this evolution ;

§ demonstrate and study traditional crafts and environmentally sensitive alternatives that reduce man’s impact on the land, including managing land organically as an educational tool and for local food production;

§ feature the archaeological qualities of the area dating back about 3000 years and the links to others at Liddington Hill and Barbury Castle;

§ provide educational opportunities for local children linking in with local schools and community groups

Trust meeting 10 December

2005-11-30T16:16:00.000Z

The Jefferies Land Conservation Trust is holding a special general meeting on Saturday 10th December at 1pm in order to formally adopt a Constitution and elect Trustees that will manage the organisation.

The meeting will be held at The Community Crossroads [the former Railway Museum] in Faringdon Road, Swindon.

There will be an opportunity to update Members about the Trust’s emerging vision for the land at Coate.

ADOPTION OF CONSTITUTION
This proposes rules by which the Trust will operate. They follow a model provided by the Charity Commission. The draft document also contains a mission and policy statement and describes briefly how the organisation is structured. Once the Constitution is agreed, the Trustees will apply to the Charity Commission in order to formally register the Trust as a Charity.

APPOINTMENT OF HONORARY OFFICERS AND TRUSTEES
Trust members will elect from amongst themselves a Chair, a Secretary and Treasurer and up to five additional trustees.

For more information contact Jean Saunders on jefferies_lct@tiscali.co.uk or phone 01793 783040

Just Before Winter

2005-10-28T15:57:00.000+01:00

Just Before Winter

by Richard Jefferies [1886]

A rich tint of russet deepened on the forest top, and seemed to sink day by day deeper into the foliage like a stain; riper and riper it grew, as an apple colours. Broad acres these of the last crop, the crop of leaves; a thousand thousand quarters, the broad earth will be their barn. A warm red lies on the hill-side above the woods, as if the red dawn stayed there through the day; it is the heath and heather seeds; and higher still, a pale yellow fills the larches. The whole of the great hill glows with colour under the short hours of the October sun; and overhead, where the pine-cones hang, the sky is of the deepest azure. The conflagration of the woods burning luminously crowds into those short hours a brilliance the slow summer does not know.

The frosts and mists and battering rains that follow in quick succession after the equinox, the chill winds that creep about the fields, have ceased a little while, and there is a pleasant sound in the fir trees. Everything is not gone yet. In the lanes that lead down to the 'shaws' in the dells, the 'gills,' as these wooded depths are called, buckler ferns, green, fresh, and elegantly fashioned, remain under the shelter of the hazel-lined banks. From the tops of the ash wands, where the linnets so lately sang, coming up from the stubble, the darkened leaves have been blown, and their much-divided branches stand bare like outstretched fingers. Black-spotted sycamore leaves are down, but the moss grows thick and deeply green; and the trumpets of the lichen seem to be larger, now they are moist, than when they were dry under the summer heat. Here is herb Robert in flower--its leaves are scarlet; a leaf of St. John's-wort, too, has become scarlet; the bramble leaves are many shades of crimson; one plant of tormentil has turned yellow. Furze bushes, grown taller since the spring, bear a second bloom, but not perhaps so golden as the first. It is the true furze, and not the lesser gorse; it is covered with half-opened buds; and it is clear, if the short hours of sun would but lengthen, the whole gorse hedge would become aglow again. Our trees, too, that roll up their buds so tightly, like a dragoon's cloak, would open them again at Christmas; and the sticky horse-chestnut would send forth its long ears of leaves for New Year's Day. They would all come out in leaf again if we had but a little more sun; they are quite ready for a second summer.

Brown lie the acorns, yellow where they were fixed in their cups; two of these cups seem almost as large as the great acorns from abroad. A red dead-nettle, a mauve thistle, white and pink bramble flowers, a white strawberry, a little yellow tormentil, a broad yellow dandelion, narrow hawkweeds, and blue scabious, are all in flower in the lane. Others are scattered on the mounds and in the meads adjoining, where may be collected some heath still in bloom, prunella, hypericum, white yarrow, some heads of red clover, some beautiful buttercups, three bits of blue veronica, wild chamomile, tall yellowwood, pink centaury, succory, dock cress, daisies, fleabane, knapweed, and delicate blue harebells. Two York roses flower on the hedge: altogether, twenty-six flowers, a large bouquet for October 19, gathered, too, in a hilly country.

Besides these, note the broad hedge-parsley leaves, tunnelled by leaf-miners; bright masses of haws gleaming in the sun; scarlet hips; great brown cones fallen from the spruce firs; black heart-shaped bindweed leaves here, and buff bryony leaves yonder; green and scarlet berries of white bryony hanging thickly on bines from which the leaves have withered; and bunches of grass, half yellow and half green, along the mound. Now that the leaves have been brushed from the beech saplings you may see how the leading stem rises in a curious wavy line; some of the leaves lie at the foot, washed in white dew, that stays in the shade all day; the wetness of the dew makes the brownish red of the leaf show clear and bright. One leaf falls in the stillness of the air slowly, as if let down by a cord of gossamer gently, and not as a stone falls--fate delayed to the last. A moth adheres to a bough, his wings half open, like a short brown cloak flung over his shoulders. Pointed leaves, some drooping, some horizontal, some fluttering slightly, still stay on the tall willow wands, like bannerets on the knights' lances, much torn in the late battle of the winds. There is a shower from a clear sky under the trees in the forest; brown acorns rattling as they fall, and rich coloured Spanish chestnuts thumping the sward, and sometimes striking you as you pass under; they lie on the ground in pocketfuls. Specks of brilliant scarlet dot the grass like some bright berries blown from the bushes; but on stooping to pick them, they are found to be the heads of a fungus. Near by lies a black magpie's feather, spotted with round dots of white.........

The short hours shorten, and the leaf-crop is gathered to the great barn of the earth; the oaks alone, more tenacious, retain their leaves, that have now become a colour like new leather. It is too brown for buff--it is more like fresh harness. The berries are red on the holly bushes and holly trees that grow, whole copses of them, on the forest slopes--'the Great Rough;' the half-wild sheep have polished the stems of these holly trees till they shine, by rubbing their fleeces against them. The farmers have been drying their damp wheat in the oast-houses over charcoal fires, and wages are lowered, and men discharged. Vast loads of brambles and thorns, dead firs, useless hop-poles and hop-bines, and gorse are drawn together for the great bonfire on the green. The 5th of November bonfires are still vital institutions, and from the top of the hill you may see them burning in all directions, as if an enemy had set fire to the hamlets.

Deliberate decay?

2005-10-28T14:46:00.000+01:00

Is Swindon Borough Council deliberately neglecting Coate Farm that houses the Richard Jefferies Museum?

It would appear to be so.

There is no apparent attempt made to look after the house and grounds let alone honour the home and name of this influential and well-respected writer.

With proposed major development on the doorstep, is Swindon Borough Council hoping to sell off the house and grounds for more?

Not over our dead bodies!

On the Downs

2005-10-24T09:06:00.000+01:00

'The wind blows, and declares that the mind has capacity for more than has ever yet been brought to it. The wind is wide, and blows not only here, but along the whole range of hills - the hills are not broad enough for it; nor is the sea - it comes across the ocean and spreads itself whither it will. Though invisible, it is material, and yet it knows no limit. As the wind to the fixed boulder lying deep in the sward, so is the immaterial mind to the wind. There is capacity in it for more than has ever yet been placed before it. No system, no philosophy yet organized in logical sequence satisfies the inmost depth - fills and fully occupies the well of thought. Read the system and with the last word it is over - the mind passes on and requires more...

The Downs are lit with sunlight - the night will cover them presently - but the mind will sigh as eagerly for these things as in the glory of day. Sooner or later there will surely come an opening in the clouds, and a broad beam of light will descend. A new thought scarcely arrives in a thousand years, but the sweet wind is always here, providing breath for the physical man. Let hope and faith remain, like the air, always, so that the soul may live. That such a higher thought may come is the desire - the prayer which springs on viewing the blue hill line, the sea, the flower...

From the blue hill lines, from the dark copses on the ridges, the shadows in the combes, from the apple-sweet wind and rising grasses, from the leaf issuing out of the bud to question the sun - there comes from all of these an influence which forces the heart to lift itself in earnest and purest desire.
The soul knows itself, and would live its own life.'

Richard Jefferies, 'On the Downs', The Hills and the Vale

the music of water

2005-10-24T08:55:00.000+01:00

'No one else seems to have seen the sparkle on the brook, or heard the music at the hatch, or to have felt back through the centuries... Perhaps after all I was mistaken, and there never was any such place or any such meadows, and I was never there.'

Richard Jefferies
'My Old Village', Field and Hedgerow

Power of nature

2005-10-03T08:53:00.000+01:00

Richard Jefferies

Tom and I have returned from a holiday in Dorset where much pride of place is given to local writers. Thomas Hardy was undoubtedly influenced by Richard Jefferies. T E Lawrence's [Lawrence of Arabia] retreat at Clouds Hill had Jefferies' books displayed on the shelves. John Fowles has gone so far as to sign the Save Coate petition.

Literary Dorset is a real tourist attraction.

Influenced by the natural beauty around his Coate home, Richard Jefferies wrote in 'Wild Flowers':

"If we had never before looked upon the earth, but suddenly came to it man or woman grown, set down in the midst of a summer mead, would it not seem to us a radiant vision? The hues, the shapes, the song and life of birds, above all the sunlight, the breath of heaven, resting on it; the mind would be filled with its glory unable to grasp it, hardly believing that such things could be mere matter ... too beautiful to be long watched lest it should fade away."

Coate was very special then as it is to those of us now who see with Jefferies eyes. Let it be a literary attraction for tourists who want to marvel at the images that created such passionate prose.

Jessie Baden's home

2005-10-01T08:33:00.000+01:00

This is Day House farm. It is a Grade 2 listed building and the former home of Jessie Baden who married Richard Jefferies.

It seems to be Mark's home in 'Bevis' and his 'prison' when he is not allowed to go out and play with his friends.

Coate Water nature reserve

2005-09-22T08:04:00.000+01:00

This is part of the nature reserve at Coate Water. It was created about 35 years ago to act as a flood storage area for the main lake.

It was the first local nature to be designated in Wiltshire and it forms part of Coate Water Site of Special Scientific Interest.

The nature reserve is not open to the public although bird-watches can obtain a permit to access the bird hides. It supports a large heronry and many of the breeding birds are on the endangered species list. Whilst the reed beds aren't extensive enough to support breeding bittern, they visit the nature reserve every year, much to the delight of bird spotters who rarely get to see this secretive bird.

Another welcome return to the nature reserve is the otter. Fifteen species of dragon-fly have been recorded and four species of bat swoop over the lake to feed.

Part of our vision is to create an extended reed bed into the field that floods next to the nature reserve.

Jefferies' favourite view

2005-09-21T08:37:00.000+01:00

Liddington Hill was a favoured haunt of Richard Jefferies. He regularly walked there to get away from people. The experience uplifted his soul as described in the opening page of 'The Story of My Heart', his autobiography.

Now the views are scarred by Swindon's expansion - not least of all the new hospital to the right of the picture. Coate Water is still visible from the hill whilst the fields in the foothills to the Downs still form a grand setting for the town.

Flower rich hay meadow

2005-09-20T08:34:00.000+01:00

Part of our vision for Jefferies Land would be to create flower rich hay meadows that would be cut for hay after the seeds have shed and then grazed by sheep, cows or horses.

Mighty oak

2005-09-19T14:29:00.000+01:00

One of over 170 trees with a Tree Preservation Order on Jefferies Land.

Some oaks date back to the 17th century.

The oak can be home to 240 species of insect.

Trees help you get better. A survey showed that patients with a view of trees left hospital 20 per cent earlier that those who didn't.

ACTION TO PROTECT LITERARY LANDMARK

2005-09-18T06:30:00.000+01:00

PRESS RELEASE

- 'Jefferies Land' Conservation Trust

New conservation trust leaps into action to protect local literary landmark

The newly formed 'Jefferies Land Conservation Trust' has written to English Heritage requesting that the government's protector of historic monuments might place a preservation order on a milestone, opposite the old Coate Cottages. The old stone marker was immortalised in Richard Jefferies' 'Meadow Thoughts', published in 1884 in the book, "The Life of the Fields".

The Trust is concerned that this literary landmark might be removed or damaged as it falls within the proposed development area of Coate.

The opening lines of 'Meadow Thoughts' read:

"The old house stood by the silent country road, secluded by many a long,long mile, and yet again secluded within the great walls of the garden.Often and often I rambled up to the milestone which stood under an oak, to look at the chipped inscription low down--'To London, 79 Miles.' So faraway, you see, that the very inscription was cut at the foot of the stone, since no one would be likely to want that information. It was half hidden bydocks and nettles, despised and unnoticed."

'Meadow Thoughts' inspired Reginald Arkell, another writer, to seek out the countryside that Jefferies brought alive. Arkell's clue was that he was looking for somewhere "79 miles from London". In his book about Jefferies published in 1933, he records how his investigations led him to Coate and to the famous milestone.The 'old house' is now Jefferies Museum.

Whilst the oak has disappeared the milestone can still be seen along with the nettles alongside the original Coate lane that now runs south of the dual carriageway A4259, MarlboroughRoad.

Today the milestone still stands upright bearing the chipped inscription 'To London 79 miles'. The stone is about 41 inches high and it also displays the mileages to other towns although the inscriptions are not so clear. 'To Swindon 2 miles', 'To Hungerford 14 miles', 'To Marlborough --- miles' andthere is one other illegible place name with just a '9' visible.

A spokesperson for Trust said:

"This milestone was old in Jefferies' time. To still be able to see the stone and read theinscription mentioned in his book adds extra delight. This is just anotherreason, on top of the thousands that people have expressed already, to Save Coate from the developers".

New conservation trust is born

2005-09-17T12:50:00.000+01:00

PRESS RELEASE

'Jefferies Land' Conservation Trust

12 September 2005

New conservation trust is born

The Save Coate coalition is backing the launch of a new conservation trustin a bid to propose an alternative use for the countryside east and south ofCoate Water Country Park.

The trust is adopting the name, the 'Jefferies Land' Conservation Trust, in honour of the Coate born Victorian author, Richard Jefferies who lived from1848 to 1887.

The Trust's long-term vision for the area would place Swindon squarely onthe map as a literary heritage site, as a place for visitors to enjoy aspecial rural climate, and as a centre for study of the environment and historic landscapes.

The group hopes to create extensive new habitats thatlink up the nature reserves at Coate Water, Day House Copse and BurderopWoods and ensure that the open views between the country park and Liddington Hill are protected forever from development. Given access to existing buildings, the Trust aspires to open study centres to focus on literary landscapes as an inspiration to British writers and to provide educational opportunities for local people to appreciate nature, art and the rich history of the area.

A spokesperson for the Trust said:

"In his books, Jefferies immortalised every plant and creature existing inthe Coate area - nothing escaped his keen eye. As England's foremost natureand countryside writer, he must be turning in his grave at the latest threatto build on his beloved homeland. We believe that Jefferies would approve ofour vision for the area and that we will get the support of the tens of thousands of local people who have backed the Save Coate petition."

ENDS

Jefferies Land Conservation Trust News

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Grant to plant

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Trust publish their vision for Jefferies Land at Coate and a history of the area

Trust meeting 10 December

Just Before Winter

Deliberate decay?

On the Downs

the music of water

Power of nature

Jessie Baden's home

Coate Water nature reserve

Jefferies' favourite view

Flower rich hay meadow

Mighty oak

ACTION TO PROTECT LITERARY LANDMARK

New conservation trust is born

Planning Committee
Tuesday, 7th June, 2011 6.00 p.m.