IT shouldn’t be possible for a development of 82 homes to get the nod without being voted on, or even discussed in public, by councillors.

But that’s what’s happened at Harnham Business Park, that scrubby eyesore in front of Booker’s cash and carry.

It was more cock-up than conspiracy, apparently.

None of those who objected to the scheme asked Wiltshire councillor Jose Green to request a planning committee debate until it was too late.

Most people have no idea they need to ask their councillor to ‘call in’ a planning application in order to get it debated. Why would they? How would they find out?

Why on earth Harnham Business Park was ever allotted to Mrs Green’s rural Fovant & Chalke Valley electoral division, instead of – well, Harnham – is another question.

Brian Dalton, who represents Harnham, wasn’t even alerted by council staff to the application, and feels strongly that it should have gone to committee.

This is all the result of Wiltshire’s unitary leaders splitting up Salisbury to ‘divide and rule’, afraid of it becoming an alternative power base.

Once the builders’ jamboree all along the Netherhampton Road is under way, the boundary will change in 2021 to make the sites officially part of our city again. And they say journalists are cynical!

Now I’m not against the business park plan. I’ve argued previously that it’s a more sustainable site for homes than the farmland further along Netherhampton Road, where Bovis currently propose to erect 740. (‘Sustainable’ as long as you’re not a kid on a bike wobbling alongside a Booker lorry on the shared access road, that is!)

But the cumulative effect of all this for Harnham residents will be a Total Traffic Nightmare.

The whole suburb is under siege, with people itching to build at Britford Lane, Bishops Drive, Downton Road... you name it, someone’s got an option on it.

Let’s not forget the suggestion that the farmland by the cattle market could actually take 1,100 homes, if only poor old Bovis weren’t required to save some land for employment-related development.

Bovis, unsurprisingly, are narky now because while they’re expected to accommodate businesses, the so-called business park isn’t. So you can bet your boots they’ll be back soon begging “Please sir, can I have some more?” Houses, that is.

And they’ll probably get more, because the plan to decant Churchfields to Harnham is just wishful thinking.

Meanwhile Wiltshire’s cabinet met on Tuesday and agreed to launch a strategic rethink on the way new housing is spread around.

One option they’ll be looking into is a new 2,000-strong community around Porton and Boscombe, matching homes to science park job creation.

Another is to concentrate even more development in Salisbury, despite warnings that our infrastructure couldn’t cope.

So it’s all up for grabs, and plenty is at stake.

But nothing will happen quickly, and of course overall housing targets are subject to the whims of government, if it can get its head out of Brexit.

So I’ll return to this one in more detail soon.

anneriddle36@gmail.com