REDUCING a city like Salisbury to parish council status is like forcing someone to fight with one hand tied behind their back.
It’s the main service centre for smaller towns and villages for miles around. It’s got a hospital that serves an even wider area.
It’s where so many roads converge, as we know to our detriment.
Yet developers can blithely work up plans that will have a massive impact on our community and our lifestyle and ‘explore’ them informally with Wiltshire Council without the people of Salisbury even being informed, let alone having any input.
If not for social media, it could have been ages before we heard about proposals so large in scale that they would effectively join Salisbury to Amesbury.
And by then it might well have been too late to exert any real influence over the outcome.
I’m talking about 1,200 homes at Vineys Farm alongside the A345, opposite Archer’s Gate.
I’m talking about a huge new 146-acre extension to the business and light industrial development at High Post.
And I’m talking about another scheme for business development and 500 homes on an enormous 355-acre site running south from there to a point opposite the new Longhedge housing estate.
Amesbury town councillors did know about the Vineys Farm plan. Most city councillors didn't have a clue. Because none of these greenfield sites lies within the Salisbury parish boundary, arguably they are none of our business.
Patently, any one of them alone would have a significant impact on the city’s inadequate infrastructure, particularly on our roads. Their combined impact is mind-boggling.
We can’t say no to all development and expect it to go away.
But bearing in mind Salisbury's role at the heart of south Wiltshire its residents, via their city (parish) councillors, ought to be involved - or at the very least informed - right from the word go when a major site allocation right on its doorstep is contemplated, and not just 'consulted' once it's effectively a fait accompli.
As should other neighbouring parishes that may be affected. It's simple courtesy.
It’s the main service centre for smaller towns and villages for miles around. It’s got a hospital that serves an even wider area.
It’s where so many roads converge, as we know to our detriment.
Yet developers can blithely work up plans that will have a massive impact on our community and our lifestyle and ‘explore’ them informally with Wiltshire Council without the people of Salisbury even being informed, let alone having any input.
If not for social media, it could have been ages before we heard about proposals so large in scale that they would effectively join Salisbury to Amesbury.
And by then it might well have been too late to exert any real influence over the outcome.
I’m talking about 1,200 homes at Vineys Farm alongside the A345, opposite Archer’s Gate.
I’m talking about a huge new 146-acre extension to the business and light industrial development at High Post.
And I’m talking about another scheme for business development and 500 homes on an enormous 355-acre site running south from there to a point opposite the new Longhedge housing estate.
Amesbury town councillors did know about the Vineys Farm plan. Most city councillors didn't have a clue. Because none of these greenfield sites lies within the Salisbury parish boundary, arguably they are none of our business.
Patently, any one of them alone would have a significant impact on the city’s inadequate infrastructure, particularly on our roads. Their combined impact is mind-boggling.
We can’t say no to all development and expect it to go away.
But bearing in mind Salisbury's role at the heart of south Wiltshire its residents, via their city (parish) councillors, ought to be involved - or at the very least informed - right from the word go when a major site allocation right on its doorstep is contemplated, and not just 'consulted' once it's effectively a fait accompli.
As should other neighbouring parishes that may be affected. It's simple courtesy.
For all I know these schemes, which are not yet on any official shortlist, may come to nought in the end.
But right now, the south of the county (indeed, the whole of southern England) is looking like a very happy hunting ground for the volume building industry.
But right now, the south of the county (indeed, the whole of southern England) is looking like a very happy hunting ground for the volume building industry.
And if any of this land does find its way onto Wiltshire’s list of strategic sites, important decisions on how it is developed will be taken not by local people, but by a strategic planning committee in Trowbridge made up of councillors from all over the county who meet in the middle of most normal people’s working day, because that’s a) the most efficient way to get things done or b) the easiest way to discourage pointless protests, depending on your point of view.
