What are you proposing to build?
The application is to build 31 new dwellings being a mixture of 19 open market 2, 3 and 4-bed houses for sale as well as 12 affordable homes (40% of the total). The affordable homes would be owned and managed by a Housing Association with priority given initially to occupiers from Hindon and adjoining parishes. The application will also include a new Doctors’ Surgery with car parking and room for modest expansion together with approximately 0.67 hectares (1.65 acres) of public open space).
Where are you proposing to build it?
The proposed site is located on the north eastern outskirts of the village off East Street and close to the Chicklade Road. The site is only part of the triangular field that sits between East Street, Chicklade Road and the Ridgeway footpath. Access to the site would come from the existing turning off the main road north east of the Fellowship Club.
How long will it take to build the new development?
If full planning permission is granted, we would expect to make a start on site towards the end of 2023. It is likely that the development would then take about another 18 months to 2 years to complete.
Who is C G Fry & Son Ltd?
C G Fry and Son Limited is a family-owned housebuilder and building contractor based in West Dorset and active across the West Country. C G Fry built the recent scheme on Hindon Lane at Tisbury (Wyndham Place) and also the two schemes off the Shaftesbury Road in Mere (one included rebuilding the Walnut Tree pub and the other is currently on site on the old Hill Brush Company factory site). C G Fry is in contract with the landowners, Stephen and Caroline White, who still own the land. All parties are working closely with the new GP practice partners to deliver the new surgery building.
Who else is involved?
C G Fry has worked closely with Officers from Wiltshire Council and with the Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group to make sure that there was sufficient technical evidence to show that the site could be delivered. C G Fry has instructed an experienced team of consultants to advise on a range of matters including:
- Landscape Impact;
- Ecology and Biodiversity;
- Transport, traffic, access, drainage and utilities;
- Trees and Hedgerows;
- Archaeology, conservation and heritage; and
- Ground conditions and geology.
What planning process is this development going through?
Once we concluded the August 2021 consultation on the website, we finalised our plans and presented them at a “drop-in” style exhibition in the Village Hall on Wednesday 8th September 2021. This provided an opportunity for us to feed back to the community how we responded to its views and comments along with policies in the Neighbourhood Plan. Members of C G Fry’s team and the GP Practice were available to answer questions and address concerns.
All feedback received via the website and at the Village Hall event will be contained in a “Statement of Community Engagement” submitted with the planning application so Wiltshire Council could see what was said and how we took it into account.
The full detailed planning application itself was then submitted in late September 2021. The decision making process is ongoing with the application to be determined by Wiltshire Council having regard to policies in the Neighbourhood Plan and its own policy documents and having carried out consultation with the Parish Council, near neighbours and other interested parties as it would do with any other planning application.
What consultation was undertaken on the Neighbourhood Plan?
Your Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group has worked hard to draft the Neighbourhood Plan and it passed its referendum with a significant majority in May 2021. A lot of local consultation was carried out at a number of stages in that process.
C G Fry attended an event in the Fellowship Club as part of that process to explain what was possible on the Chicklade Road/East Street site and that touched on some initial ideas around the location for the surgery, number of houses, extent of public open space and similar matters.
What are the key features of the development?
The application comprises:
- 31 new dwellings in total; a mixture of 19 open market 2, 3 and 4-bed houses for sale as well as 12 affordable homes (40% of the total) managed by a Housing Association;
- A new Doctors’ Surgery building as a much-needed replacement for the existing premises at the top of High Street delivered and funded directly by the GPs themselves;
- A substantial area of public open space (0.67 hectares, 1.65 acres); and
- Substantial financial contributions through a Section 106 Agreement to education provision and Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL).
In addition to the houses, will there be any community amenities?
Yes. The proposals will include an area of public open space of around 0.67 hectares (1.65 acres) to be handed to the Parish Council on a long lease (probably 99 years) with only a very small “peppercorn” rent.
The team is interested to hear from the community on what it would like to see the open space used for. Our view is that it should be fairly informal comprising things like a community orchard and informal meadow with grassed paths cut through it. Should it include anything else? Should it make provision for older age groups with things like a “trim trail”?
In addition to this, a payment of around £275,000 will be made as Wiltshire Council’s “Community Infrastructure Levy” or CIL along with approximately another £340,000 towards “early years”, primary and secondary education.
In response to feedback from the Parish Council, members of the community, and your local Wiltshire Councillor, we have also worked with the Public Rights of Way team at Wiltshire Council to agree a package of improvements to the footpaths HIND6 and HIND30
What environmental considerations have been given?
We know a lot about the site having carried out ecological survey work and consulted with Wiltshire Council’s ecologist and carried out a Heritage Assessment looking at archaeology and the built environment.
Whilst much of the site is pretty benign from an ecological point of view, the hedgerows are very important for commuting and feeding bats in the wider area associated with the Chilmark Quarries Special Area of Conservation. It will also be necessary to demonstrate to Wiltshire Council that the development delivers “biodiversity net gain” and the reports submitted with the planning application set this out.
The fundamental principle is to maintain and enhance the boundaries of the field and provide new habitats within the scheme such as bat and bird boxes, provision for hedgehog movements, reptile hibernacula and the like.
There are several trees around the site and we have had a specialist arborist look at these and the hedgerows. The design scheme takes into account the various root protection zones and shading zones and trees and the hedgerows will be retained.
Will these new houses increase the risk of flooding?
New development always brings with it a concern about surface water run-off and flooding. Development generally has to show that it manages surface water run-off and does not allow it to leave the site at anything greater than the current greenfield run off rate (plus an uplift for climate change).
In this case, we have carried out an analysis of the ground conditions and ground water monitoring during winter when rainfall and the water table are high. Our evidence suggests that soakaways will work in this chalk environment and so the surface water system will be designed around this knowledge.
What about sewerage and foul drainage?
Through consultation with Wessex Water, we know that the existing treatment works in the village have sufficient capacity for this development.
Won’t all the new houses result in traffic problems?
As part of the process to develop our plans, we have carried out traffic studies and consulted with Wiltshire Council’s highways department. The result of these studies are summarised in the Transport Statement that forms part of the application. We are confident that the local road network can comfortably accommodate the new housing and surgery safely, and the Local Highways Authority has raised no objections to the submitted plans.
What about pedestrian access, and especially for wheelchair users and those with pushchairs?
When the site was allocated for this development by the local community in the Neighbourhood Plan, it was done so in the knowledge of the existing constraints on the B3089, preventing the provision of suitable pedestrian footways on that road. As a result, we have worked with local stakeholders and Wiltshire Council’s highways and public rights of way teams to agree and fund a package of measures to enhance the existing public footpaths HIND6 and HIND30 between the village and the site, improving accessibility for all users. The measures include:
- Removing the steps on HIND6 at the intersection of the path and the High Street, and replacing with a ramp.
- Resurfacing of HIND6 with a Hoggin surfacing, of the type used for accessible paths at National Trust properties.
- Accessible path linking HIND6 into the heart of the development and on to the new surgery.
- Resurfacing of HIND30, to maximise available path width and remove interference from tree roots.
- Cutting back of vegetation at pinch points to maximise available light and full path width.
- Install recessed floor stud lighting along the path to illuminate route while maximising path width (no interference from lighting columns).
What will the houses look like?
Character and design are extremely important elements of the scheme particularly because the site is in the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is creating a new “edge” to the village. We considered more modern approaches to design but we have elected to give the scheme design a more traditional feel to improve the edge of Hindon, be in keeping with the village and also make the best of views through to important assets such as the church. Materials and detailing will also be in keeping with the village.
Will each house and the surgery have parking spaces?
The development will include car parking spaces for each dwelling and the surgery that comply with current Wiltshire Council standards. Garages are designed to be truly “usable” with sufficient room for a car and additional storage for things like recycling and wheelie bins.
What are the plans for a surgery and how will you guarantee its delivery? How do we know you won’t just build the houses and leave a hole?
We don’t want a vacant surgery site or hole in our scheme either. This does not make any commercial or design sense.
The GPs have got their funding in place and have appointed architects and project managers to bring the site forward. We are working closely with them to ensure that the housing and surgery are delivered together particularly as they use the same new access road. This brings certainty to all parties including our future purchasers. The planning conditions may well include a trigger by which the surgery site has to be serviced and made available but it is our express intention to deliver the surgery at the same time as the housing.
How will this benefit the local area?
It needs to be remembered that it is a community-led Neighbourhood Plan that identified the need for a modest amount of housing alongside the delivery of a much needed new surgery building to replace the existing sub-standard premises. The Neighbourhood Plan considers open market and affordable housing needs and, following a site selection process, identified this site as able to deliver the requirements.
The area will benefit from new housing that will meet some identified affordable housing needs as well as identified open market housing needs. In addition, the development will result in the early delivery of a brand new Doctors’ Surgery. Financial contributions towards local educational provision and also Community Infrastructure Levy will be secured.
What are you doing about climate change and things like electric vehicle charging?
C G Fry is a “fabric first” housebuilder in that we believe, first and foremost, in the need to build high quality and well insulated buildings. Building a building well and to last tackles most of the energy use problem. We know our specification and here, where there is no mains gas, we will use air source heat pumps. This will exceed the energy use requirements in the upcoming changes to the Building Regulations and also meet the exacting new “Future Homes Standard” that is to be implemented from 2025.
The residential and surgery elements of the scheme will also need a “Travel Plan” designed to encourage occupiers to use the private car less and travel more sustainably. C G Fry also provides upgraded cabling to all garages that will allow home owners to fit whatever vehicle charging connector they need and where there is no garage, we provide ducting from the house to the parking space so that cabling and a connector can be easily fitted according to customer choice.
Why are you building in the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty where we thought building was restricted?
It is the case in national planning policy that development in AONBs should be restricted. However, it can happen where there is a clear justification and the community-led Neighbourhood Plan identified the need for a modest amount of housing alongside the delivery of a much needed new surgery building to replace the existing sub-standard premises. The Neighbourhood Plan considered possible alternative sites and concluded the Chicklade Road/East Street was the most appropriate site even though it is within the AONB.
The Neighbourhood Plan was subject to independent examination before it went forward to the referendum which it passed in May 2021. We are now delivering that site.
Why does the layout differ slightly from the one shown in the Neighbourhood Plan?
The site layout shown in the Neighbourhood Plan was purely for indicative purposes. It was sketched up before any of the technical work to establish site constraints, ecological matters etc had been carried out to prepare the submission layout and was intended to demonstrate how the site could accommodate such a development.
The sketch in the Neighbourhood Plan is clearly labelled as “Indicative Housing Layout”, with the text going on to say "Whilst this indicative layout is just one proposal it is only a guide from which the developer can produce their own more detailed plans as they think appropriate”.
The final layout in the submitted application follows the broad approaches established in the Neighbourhood Plan in terms of the site area to be development and the access from East Street as set out in the Development Brief in the Neighbourhood Plan, but there are variations which have been informed by technical studies and surveys, as well as engagement with statutory consultees to make the development acceptable and deliverable in planning terms. This does not mean the scheme does not comply with the Neighbourhood Plan, and it is our contention that it clearly does.
Why have you not included a separate access from Chicklade Road?
The Development Brief and indicative layout in the Neighbourhood Plan both set out that access to the development and surgery should be taken from East Street, as per our submitted plans.
“New Doctors Surgery: Self-contained serviced site taking access from East Street.” (Hindon Neighbourhood Plan, p.65 – Chicklade Road development brief)
However, the Neighbourhood Plan does go on to make reference to exploring the practicality of delivering an access from Chicklade Road, as follows:
“…it is important to consider together with Wiltshire Council’s Highway Authority the practicality of an access to the surgery only, probably from Chicklade Road.” (Hindon Neighbourhood Plan, p.61)
We worked closely with Wiltshire Council’s Highways team and with planning officers to consider a separate access. However, it was determined to be impractical as it would not be supported by the Highways Authority on highways safety grounds, and it would also cause unacceptable harm to bat corridors, as well as urban design, landscape and other ecological impacts. Ecologists confirmed that the loss of hedgerow necessary to create an access from Chicklade Road would result in an adverse impact on the Special Area of Conservation (SAC) for Bats and would not receive the required Appropriate Assessment approval from Natural England. This would prevent Wiltshire Council from positively determining the application, rendering the entire development undeliverable. It is important to note that the Neighbourhood Plan states "probably" and not "should" or "must". The proposals do not therefore conflict with the Neighbourhood Plan.