Warminster Town Council (TC) looks increasingly out of step with its residents over proposals to open up yet more land for housing development.
A recent council survey revealed deep public concern about the strain on local services and the loss of the town’s cherished landscape. Yet, despite 61% of respondents in the recent council survey opposing development on Home Farm Land, the council has chosen to include this very site as a key area for future expansion in its draft Warminster Neighbourhood Plan.
The decision has sparked frustration among locals — especially given that the land’s controlling owners live overseas and have no direct stake in the wellbeing or character of the town. These owners have previously sought planning permission to build on the site, even though it lies outside Wiltshire’s Strategic Housing Plan to 2038 and the official town settlement boundary. On previous occasions, the most recent in 2019, a Government Planning Inspector concluded the land unsuitable for housing development.
Strong opposition to the proposal has also come from Bishopstrow House Hotel, one of the town’s largest employer, and from local Wiltshire MP Andrew Murrison, both of whom argue that such expansion risks undermining the very qualities that make Warminster distinctive. To develop Home Farm Land severely undermines the hotel’s future, as the proposed development will be in eyesight of the hotel and its gardens, thereby affecting thegreat economic benefit it currently brings to Warminster as a whole.
Critics say the current draft Neighbourhood Plan is deeply flawed and written by an unaccountable consultant paid for by public funds, rather than for or by residents. Warminster’s unique identity stems from its people, its historic buildings, and its remarkable setting within the surrounding landscape. Many of the town’s most valued heritage and natural assets lie precisely on its eastern edge — the very area now being targeted for development.
As the debate continues, one question looms large: will the council listen to its community and protect the town’s character, or push ahead with plans that could irreversibly alter it?