No to the Hilperton Gap road - proposes Cllr Hames

9.48.00am GMT Sat 29th Jan 2005

West Wiltshire District Councillors met on Friday night to decide the fate of the proposed road through the Hilperton Gap. The sometimes chaotic and often highly charged meeting was attended by over 300 members of the public.

Liberal Democrat councillor Duncan Hames proposed that the application to build the road be refused. His motion was seconded by Cllr Andrew Bryant, but was defeated by 12 votes to 4.

"Everyone at the meeting, myself included, recognised the traffic problems in Hilperton, and the need for a road to alleviate them." Acknowledged Cllr Hames when commenting after the meeting.

"The costs to the community - especially the loss of the amenity of the Gap - were too high." concluded Cllr Duncan Hames.

"I was not convinced that the benefits of this particular road were as great as officers and developers had argued, and the costs to the community - especially the loss of the amenity of the Gap - were too high. I proposed we refuse the application." Explained Cllr Hames.

Some people have argued that with the Gap road in the local plan, councillors have no choice but to approve the road. Cllr Hames disagrees:

"It that is the case, then why should councillors be brought together to make a decision? A planning committee is a decision-making body - not just a rubber stamp. To claim otherwise is just ducking the question." Declared Cllr Hames.

Eventually councillors settled on a motion proposed by leader of the council, Cllr Tony Phillips, to defer the decision to allow further study of alternative routes and consideration of the impact of the reduced housing allocation for West Wiltshire in the emerging structure plan.

"The public will be astonished if the County Council do not take this opportunity to review their Hilperton link road route options..." said Cllr Hames.

"...but the officer present at the planning committee seemed dead set on the Hilperton Gap road as their preferred route. When this comes back to the committee it may be that nothing has changed, only that time councillors will have to make a decision." He concluded.