INDISTINGUISHABLE from all the other mailings in my post, the little card from Persimmon was also about to go in the bin before the postman kindly pointed it out.

He was concerned because most of my neighbours were also failing to recognise what this was.

It is not only an inconspicuous document, it is also a deceitful one. It is headed: “Sustainable development with significant new public open space and biodiversity improvements.” 

How laudable that sounds – and how ridiculous it is.

The development will completely cover a large field which uniquely fulfils a number of critical purposes.

For the people of Britford, some still traumatised by the flooding of last winter, by far the most important is the fact that this large green area soaks up huge amounts of run-off water as it makes its way down-hill from the development above.

Every winter this field is completely saturated, the bottom corner actually flooding.

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By covering this field in concrete too, the water meadows will once again be overwhelmed, and existing houses threatened with greater flooding. “Sustainable?” Absolutely not.

This one field does surprisingly great service to the people of Salisbury today and to future generations.

It protects the borders of no fewer than FIVE (5) designated or special areas:

  1. The conservation area of the Salisbury water-meadows to the north
  2. A site of special scientific interest also to the north
  3. The conservation area of Britford to the east, one of the few villages not yet subsumed into a suburb and a uniquely pretty place on the edge of our famous water-meadows
  4. A wide Area of Archaeological Potential (AAP) (to the east), being the site of a settlement of considerable importance just before the Norman conquest and of an Anglo-Saxon Royal Manor.
  5. One of our famous views across the fields to the spire, welcoming visitors to Salisbury who approach along the A338 from Bournemouth to the south.

Conservation area, water meadows, SSI?  The habitat these areas offer can all be improved upon by you, Persimmon!

You are going to create ‘greater biodiversity’ through your housing estate!

More than that, there, in the middle of idyllic open countryside, already accessible to all of us, you are going to develop “a network of green spaces and trails”. 

God got there before you and did a rather better job of it.

This is really silly stuff.

Running along the bottom of the field is the sole remaining footpath from Salisbury city out into open countryside which leads through fields.

It is offensive nonsense to suggest that Persimmon would be ‘improving’ this. You will be destroying its rural identity, leading walkers along the side of a modern housing estate.

This is a document written by developers from your offices deep in the city, with no understanding whatsoever of what is at stake for the people of Salisbury, and especially those of Harnham and Britford, who see only the need to tick all the boxes: biodiversity, play areas, green, sustainable. 

And will attempt to do so in any nonsensical way which serves their purpose, and their shareholders.

Annabel Lawson

Harnham

Send letters by email to newsdesk@salisburyjournal.co.uk or by post to Editor, Salisbury Journal, Suite B (Ground Floor), Milford House, Milford Street, Salisbury, SP1 2BP.