“Land South of Westwells Road - Redevelopment of site to deliver extension to existing Spring Park data centre campus consisting of (a) free standing data centre building (b) energy, power and water infrastructure (c) site access and internal roads (d) site security arrangements (e) diverted Public Rights of Ways (f) hard and soft, green and blue landscaping and (g) other ancillary and auxiliary forms of development. Resolved: to support the application subject to conditions that the green space to the south of the site is not built upon in the future; that there is public access to the green space and is not merely restricted to the Public Right Of Way and that lorry movements during the construction phase avoid the village of Neston and be limited to daytime weekdays only.”
— minutes of the Corsham Town Council (Planning) meeting held on Wed 17 July 2024
“Dear Mr Steadman
Thank you for your letter dated August 22nd, 2024.
As you will know, Wiltshire Council is the Local Planning Authority with Corsham Town Council being one of many consultees. Wiltshire Council’s Planning Officers are responsible for considering all consultation responses as part of their decision-making process.
Town Councilors are not planning experts but they all care about the effects of development. All planning applications are considered by the Town Council on their merits and the information available at the time. The application for a data center is markedly different to the one for housing. And, of course, the site now has planning permission, albeit for housing rather than employment use. Whilst I cannot speak for individual Town Councilors, the change in the status of the land is likely to have contributed to Members viewing the two applications differently and reaching an alternative conclusion. The Town Council did not receive any representations ahead of the data center application being considered and this may also have influenced the Councilors.
As far as your specific points about noise and lighting from this development, this is something that Wiltshire Council’s Environmental Protection Team may be aware of.
As a consultee, the Town Council is given 21 days to respond to planning application consultations. The timing of our meetings has the effect of reducing this further, but I believe there is minimal scope for Wiltshire Council to extend this timeframe. Wiltshire Council decides the level of neighbour consultation rather than the Town Council so you may wish to take this up with the case officer.
I am sorry that I cannot offer you the response you may have wished for, but I hope this gives you an indication of why views may be different with this application compared to the previous application and subsequent permission granted for housing on the site.
Kind regards Cllr A Brown (Chair, Corsham Town Council)”
— Response from Chair Town Council
“Thank you Cllr Brown for your quick response.
I should have said in my original email that the consultation period has been extended to 30 August by Wiltshire Council due to deficiencies in the original consultation. Some of those that had been written to had reported receiving letters only 2 to 3 days before the original deadline in July. Sadly the extension was not communicated and the list of those consulted was not increased. Residents of Wadswick Green did not learn of the proposal until last week. So there is still time for Corsham Town Council to respond, though I admit time is tight if you have to have a committee meeting.
With regards to the existing planning permission on this site, my understanding differs from yours. I believe permission for housing with a maximum height of 2 storeys would have been approved if the then developer had produced a satisfactory flood defence/drainage solution. Your committee has not viewed the 2 applications differently; they have approved them both despite the great difference in scale and type of application. This application is for a 4 storey building with cooling plant on the roof creating a 5th storey, 18.5 meters high and 150 meters wide. A huge industrial building beside 2 rural residential communities.
My question to Corsham Town Council remains “Why has the council ignored these 2 communities and supported an application that is so far out of character for this location? It seems that the Town Council were not aware of our existence despite a population of 255 people at Wadswick Green.”