West Wansdyke

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moss M
moss May 7, 2013 08:25:37

Proposed building on green field sites: Sulis Meadows Development

"There is a substantial and urgent threat hanging over the landscape to
the east end of the western (Somerset) Wansdyke, where it runs along
the edge of the city of Bath."

The Wansdyke, like Offa's Dyke is about 8th century, and really falls out of the remit of prehistory but is of course one of the linking factors in the history of the British countryside.

This really is about the proposed building of several hundred houses up on the downs around Bath/Southstoke and seems to threaten the West Wansdyke earthwork which runs from Maes Knoll and Stantonbury hill forts, around Bath crossing the Avon up over the Bathampton Downs, past Chippenham and then to the more famous East Wansdyke which lollops across prehistoric parts of the Marlborough Downs and which most people are familar with.

The earthworks from the hillforts of Maes Knoll, and Stantonbury are slight, (Vortigen Studies are the best to read up on this part of the Wansdyke,), and one would have thought that the Wansdyke falls under the protection of the Protection of Ancient Monuments. The process of objecting seem complex, emails in by tomorrow for a start, and.......to quote

"If anyone would like to formally object, they will find it very
difficult. It has to be done on the grounds of English planning law;
every comment has to be on a separate, complex form;"

We all know where that came from!!!

I suspect local opposition will be the way forward, the 'skyline' of Bath has up to now been protected, but with the present government in power who knows where this one will go. There is a council website to go to should anyone be so inspired but it would need some time to think it out re objections...

R Rhiannon
Rhiannon May 7, 2013 09:37:50
Replying to moss

I didn't find it very easy to track down but there's a map here
http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/sites/default/files/sitedocuments/Planning-and-Building-Control/Planning-Policy/Core-Strategy/ProposedChanges/scspc_consultation_newspaper.pdf
It'll be a sprawling depressingly unimaginatively designed estate of houses that I wouldn't be able to afford, on a greenfield site ever pushing out into the countryside... you do have to wonder who at the council has shares in housing companies. I'm guessing they'll have to keep the dyke as a pretty landscape feature, but only because it's too bumpy to build on presumably. Pff.

(nice to see you back though, Moss)

T The Eternal
The Eternal May 11, 2013 23:50:49
Replying to moss

Unfortunately, in this day and age, the only thing that matters is someone or a group of somebodies, making money. Nowt else counts. You can't stop something happening if big money is involved, unless you

T The Eternal
The Eternal May 12, 2013 00:09:49
Replying to moss

Unfortunately, in this day and age, the only thing that matters is someone or a group of somebodies, making money. Nowt else counts. You can't stop something happening if big money is involved, unless you are someone else with big money and big people behind you. The Green Belt only counts when us plebs want to build something. Otherwise it's a free-for-all.

Even the Government's so-called "Green" policy is corrupt. How else can the relatively poor energy-generating wind-farms get permission to build in previously unspoilt areas? Can I build a small extension to my house in that area? No, but if I have shed-loads of filthy lucre I can get permission to build a gigantic wind-farm in the same place, under the name of "green energy". It's laughable, and reduces the green argument credibility to nothing.

We're done for. How can prehistoric, or other historic sites, be protected if even the green belts hold no protection, or even the uplands adjacent to National Parks. The Lake District National Park is surrounded by wind-farms. Ok, the National Park is protected, but it is affected by the fact that the wind-farms are in the views from within the Park, and they exist right up to the very border.

House building in previously no-go areas is now the norm, and will, and does, have far-reaching consequences. Soon all areas will be free to build on due to the weak "affordable housing" argument. Yes, we do need affordable housing, but it's funny how a lot of this sort of housing isn't all that affordable to the people who need it.

Sad times ahead, I'm afraid.

TE.

M moss
moss Jun 8, 2013 18:18:31
Replying to moss

Something to sign via Change.org. If you so wish.

http://www.change.org/petitions/protect-precious-green-belt-in-bath-from-a-300-home-development