Salisbury Journal has recently reported on the progress of Wiltshire Council 's draft Local Plan.

We recognise the need for more housing but believe that the plan that will shape the development of our county for the next fifteen years should be the result of dialogue with the community not imposed from above.

In Laverstock and Ford we have three allocations totalling 500 new dwellings. 

Council Officers identified these as potentially suitable for the development and fulfilment Council policies. 

It appears these cannot be challenged, as amendments to do so were refused at Cabinet and the recent Full Council.

As representatives of the community of Laverstock, we are particularly concerned with one policy which identifies the field on Church Road leading to Cockey Down as a strategic site for the development of 50 houses.

This site, not included in any earlier draft, suddenly appeared with Wiltshire Council providing no opportunity for dialogue or evidence - despite recently adopting our Neighbourhood Plan which identifies it as unsuitable for large-scale development following a professional landscape assessment and community consultation.

The value our local community attaches to this site for the way it connects the village into its landscape and the concerns about the traffic-blighted Church Road have been made clear in these pages many times before.

The draft local plan itself designates Laverstock as a 'small village', unsuitable for development,  other than small-scale infill developments to meet local needs. An unrestricted, strategic allocation contravenes this policy.

Most concerning is the fact that Councillor Clewer and his cabinet colleagues are decreeing their policies untouchable, leaving local communities only with the opportunity to challenge the plan as a whole before a government inspector on grounds of soundness.

As individual elected representatives of the local community we feel obliged to speak up about this particular site, but as believers in local democracy, we are even more concerned that this reveals a cabinet sitting in Trowbridge who are determined to drive a local plan through without giving the local community or elected Wiltshire Councillors, any chance to shape or change it.  

Cllr Ian McLennan (Wiltshire Council, Laverstock) & Cllr Nick Baker (Laverstock & Ford Parish Council)