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MP 'unprecedented soggy' words
(February 15, 2014)Community campaigners in Warminster have taken heart from comments by their MP this week after feeling betrayed by their town councillors about plans to build on a meadow along the River Wylye.
'Mercifully, we have not been afflicted by wholesale flooding in my constituency,' Dr. Andrew Murrison writes in the Wiltshire Times.
'However, several people have written in to ask about building on flood plains which is very much a live issue locally.
'I hope after this unprecedented soggy winter authorities will be looking afresh at this as a planning consideration locally and nationally.'
Local residents have the unanimous support of all four ward town councillors in their opposition to building on Spurt Mead.
Another water meadow located by another major watercourse at Dorothy Walk in the shadow of the MInster Church is also threatened by a housing developer.
"In another amazing event this winter the town council committee which sends a view on behalf of the town to planners at county hall swam upstream and downstream against this tide of public opinion at the same time!," said Cllr. Paul Macdonald.
A meeting of the town council in January suddenly reversed two previous decisions not to support housing up to the banks of the river on land that is a green space between Warminster and the village of Bishopstrow.
"I welcome these words from our MP who I believe came to appreciate all that is good about our town when he lived here, " added Cllr. Macdonald
"As a result of my first nine months on the council the planning crisis that has descended on our town I have asked that this is placed on the table at our next meeting with Andrew.
"There are many things very fundamentally wrong with the planning system that is in danger of causing long-term irreversible damage to the future of our town,
"Having written this commentary in public we now need to make sure that he acts."