Save Coate again!

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

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

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

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

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

Planning application turned down by Secretary of State

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

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

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

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