The design for a housing development in Malmesbury has been signed off and developer Cotswold Homes has said that construction should start within the next six months.

The 23 new homes will be built on a field south west of Park Road, in a location that was previously referred to as “bonkers” by a Wiltshire councillor.

Outline permission for the scheme was approved at appeal back in 2022, and Wiltshire Council postponed the decision for the design when it came to the northern area planning committee in August 2024.

Previous flooding in Park Road and White Lion Park, near the application site.Previous flooding in Park Road and White Lion Park, near the application site. (Image: Public contribution) At the time, Cllr Gavin Grant claimed that the development was an “absolutely poisoned chalice” which “should never have been granted”.

He referred to flooding on Park Road which had made the area “inaccessible” three times in the last year.

However, the committee was reminded that Wiltshire Council’s experts were satisfied with the mitigations that had already been submitted to them.

The committee agreed to defer the decision based on the lack of sustainable energy strategy from the developer, which Cotswold Homes provided for the most recent committee meeting, on Wednesday, September 18.

Strategic planning manager at Cotswold Homes, James Durant, said: “We are a privately run, family business building in the region of 100 high-quality homes a year across the southwest.

“We take a lot of pride in employing local trade.”

Mr Durant noted that the proposals would reduce carbon emissions by more than 75 per cent when measured against what is required by building regulations.

He added that the developer had undertaken “positive and collaborative” discussions with the town council and assured the committee that the site would be “highly regarded development”.

The report presented to the committee clarified that matters raised in the previous meeting regarding flooding should have no bearing on the decision-making process before them.

It stated: “Multiple comments have been received from members of the public and the town council relating to matters beyond the scope of this reserved matters application such as the flooding of the access, ecology and protected species, vehicle access to the site during the construction phase, hours of operation etc.

“These matters were either determined by the inspector directly when granting the outline planning permission or secured by conditions requiring discharging with the specialist officers from the specific departments.

“These matters have already been determined and as such are not relevant to this reserved matters application and can have no bearing on the decision-making process before the committee today.”

The northern area planning committee resolved to approve the application and thanked the Cotswold Homes representative for his patience.