Tag Archives: Village Development

Upcoming Events, Village Development

Swindon Core Strategy Flyer – Village Meeting Dates

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Core_Strategy_May_Meetings_flyerfinal[1]

Venue: Village Hall

Dates:

Saturday 21st May 10 am

Tuesday 24th May 8 pm (following the Annual Parish Meeting at 7.30 pm)

Thursday 26th May 1.45 pm

What are the issues?:

  • number of houses to be built in the village
  • through-traffic
  • flooding
  • social/council houses
  • 2,000 houses by Nightingale Wood
  • wind turbines

The recent Borough Council Core Strategy Exhibition in the Village Hall generated significant interest and a lot of strong feedback on the scale of development. A Village Development Working Group has been meeting regularly and liaising with the Parish Council to draft a response to the Core Strategy.

The Working Group wishes to provide villagers with the opportunity to explore that feedback and discuss the different courses of action open to us. Even if you have been to previous meetings, we now want villagers to help decide the best solution for South Marston’s future.

To reach as many residents as possible, we are running a series of three identical meetings at different dates and times of the day and hope you will be able to come to one of them.

Each meeting will last less than 1½ hours with a presentation by a member of the Working Group, followed by a question and answer session. A questionnaire will be available and this will provide important evidence to both the Working Party and the Parish Council.

The meetings will also help residents with their own individual responses to the Core Strategy. Please note the deadline for submitting responses to Swindon Borough has been extended from the 19th May to the 16th June.

Village Development

South Marston Transport Report and Study

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The initial Traffic Study prepared for Swindon Borough Council showing the proposed changes to deal with South Marston’s traffic problems and the proposals to cope with the traffic increase anticipated with the Eastern Development Area, together with the notes of Sam Howell’s presentation have been released and can be accessed here.

JMP EDA Transport Study South Marston Transport Report Part 2 South Marston Transport Report

Note: the lines on the maps are indicative and for transport modelling purposes only.
The adjourned meeting of the working party will be held in the village hall on Thursday at 7.30 to consider our response to this and also to develop the topics to be discussed by the future Working Party meetings,that are to be displayed at the Core Strategy Road show on the 12th April.
Village Development

Village Development Workshop Summary Results

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Results of the Village Development Workshop – 15th September 2010

Over 50 South Marston residents attended a workshop at the South Marston Hotel on 15th September with the aim of identifying some of the infrastructure and design features and facilities that they would like to see incorporated into the village development.  It is intended that these ideas will be submitted by the village for Swindon Borough Council to incorporate into the South Marston Supplementary Planning Document (SPD).

In some areas the views of the village were very clear but further discussion is required in others.  Issues on which the attendees had a clear preference included:

  • Mains sewerage for all new and existing properties
  • Eco-friendly design of all new buildings
  • Housing specifically designed for elderly people
  • Community shop, with Post Office delivery/collection service
  • Retention of current recreation ground and its expansion in the village central area
  • Daytime bus service through the village centre
  • Safe pathway/cycleway between village and Gablecross

Areas which required further consideration included:

  • School
  • Provision of housing as live/work units
  • Village Hall and medical facilities
  • Footpaths
  • Traffic management (noting that problems of speed and volume of traffic could not resolved by footpaths and crossing points alone)

There was concern that a ‘wish list’ of facilities may drive the design of the village and therefore it was important that the list was prioritised – many residents would prefer to sacrifice some facilities for fewer houses.

A discussion of ‘Piecemeal’ development (which may start out small but increase in size over a number of years in an uncontrolled manner) versus ‘Integrated’ development (where a final design is agreed at the outset, thus preventing additional development in the medium to long term) also took place.  Although there was a preference for ‘Integrated’ development, many people were still undecided and need further information before deciding.

The Parish Council are now considering the next steps, with the aim of developing the village’s input to Swindon Borough Council’s Supplementary Planning Document for South Marston.

Detailed results of the workshop are available from the Clerk to the Parish Council or the South Marston website (www.southmarston.org.uk).

Village Workshop Summary Results

Planning Information

South Marston Transport Report – Final

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Here you can find links to the Village Transport and Traffic Working Paper produced by the Borough’s consultants JMP Ltd.

It sets out the existing problems with traffic in the village and suggests options for improving footpaths at Pound Corner and the Thornhill Road bend area and controlling traffic speed. It does NOT cover traffic flow issues for an expanded village under the EDA which will be covered by a separate excercise. The approach is to improve pedestrian access and safety rather than improve traffic movements.

If you have any feelings/preferences to the proposals made below, then take the opportunity to share them by leaving a comment against this Blog Post.

Village News

Eastern Development Update

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Some good news – Swindon Borough Council have finally agreed that we should have an integrated plan for the development of the village.

Parish Council Chairman Colin McEwen said

“this is a sensible decision that enables us to include the existing village and two planned housing schemes in an integrated plan. We can’t do much about the quantity of houses, but we can influence the quality of the design”