The ORA committee produced a response to Swindon Borough Council’s newly proposed Core Strategy, and submitted it to the Council. A decision was made not to publish the entire document, (which totals over 7,000 words), into the public domain at this time, but we are able to release the following synopsis:
ORA have looked at the whole core strategy and used the major categories for reference. However, our submission is based on Tadpole Farm. Our main points of concern are:
Employment
The provision of employment opportunity in the Northern Development Area (NDA) and proposed Tadpole Farm development is poor. These developments are geographically positioned at the furthest point away from the centre of Swindon compared to other development areas. They are also not within easy commutable distance of the eastern employment areas which will inevitably undermine attempts to provide a good range of travel choices.
Waste
As it stands the Core Strategy does not address key strategic issues with the wastewater network. These issues are particularly acute for any development to the North and North West of the town with the current sewer network already at full capacity and solutions, which will be expensive and difficult to implement, yet to be defined or funded.
Traffic
The road infrastructure in North Swindon is not sustainable, with no direct route into either the town centre or employment areas. Any further development will further stretch the capacity, leading to concerns over safety and impacting on the quality of life of existing communities.
Education
The NDA has grown over recent years without adequate local provision for education, and is still continuing to grow with many existing development sites not yet completed. It is already, frequently not possible for parents to get their children into their local school – resulting in a need to travel to a school further away. Further development at the Tadpole Farm site will exacerbate this issue, with inadequate school places being provided for the residents and, in all likelihood, the school provision being delivered well after occupancy of the residential build has started placing further burdens on the existing schools of North Swindon.
Green Infrastructure
The River Ray and associated green corridor is not directly accessible to residents, prevented by the railway line. It will be necessary to provide new crossings over both the railway and River Ray. It is not clear how the funding is to be secured for the development of the Cricklade Country Way or associated access from the NDA.
Brownfield Land
The Core Strategy does not place enough emphasis on the development of brownfield sites. Just 17% of the development proposed will be using brownfield land despite so much of this land being close to the Town Centre.
Sustainability
ORA’s assessment of the Core Strategy supports the previous evidence base, which concluded that development to the North and North West of Swindon represents one of the least sustainable sites for development compared to other areas, such as to the east of Swindon, and this has far-reaching effects on the permeability of the site. Consequently it will require far higher investment in infrastructure than other potential development areas, and this is unlikely to be deliverable.
Flood Risk
Flooding is a very serious concern; in recent years the River Ray has burst its banks several times. Most notable of these occasions was in 2007 when the waters extended significantly beyond the current Environment Agency flood maps. Several homes suffered flood damage and Tadpole Lane was impassable to smaller vehicles for several hours. Many residents submitted their concerns regarding the flooding, which are still displayed on the Wiltshire Council consultation portal. ORA do not feel confident that promised work on the watercourses has been carried out or that the causes of the flooding have been properly identified and mitigation planned.
