Plans for 53 houses in Melksham on land to the west of Semington Road have been submitted to Wiltshire Council.

This follows the approval of 50 homes on an adjacent field by the council in June after the developers appealed a rejection decision.

The application site is 2.6 hectares of flat agricultural land which the plans say is “screened by mature vegetation”.

It is around 0.85km to the southwest of the town centre and lies between two residential roads.

There will be an internal road running through the proposed development and the hedges around the edge of the site will be retained as will the trees that run along the southern boundary.

In 2017 plans for 160 houses in roughly the same area were rejected and in 1990 plans for 76 houses in the area were rejected.

As per Wiltshire Council planning policy, 30% of the new homes will be affordable housing.

The developers, Terra Strategic, argue: “The benefits of new affordable housing will be significant.

"Improving the supply of affordable homes will mean that households needing affordable housing will spend less time in unsuitable accommodation, and less time bidding for over-subscribed housing.

"This will improve the lives of those real households who will benefit from the provision of high quality, affordable homes that meet their needs.

"The proposed development will also mean the Council will be better placed to address the most severe housing issues such as those households facing crisis through homelessness.

"The proposed affordable housing will come forward in a mix of tenures including affordable rented housing and shared ownership, therefore helping to meet the needs of different parts of the housing market.

"Therefore, it is the view of both Tetlow King Planning and Terra that the planning permission should be granted without delay to address the pressing affordable housing need.”

The plans also say the proposal will not increase traffic to a problematic or dangerous degree: “there is no pattern or history of collisions in the immediate locality of the site associated with a dangerous highway network and it is considered that there is no existing safety issue on the local highway network that could be exacerbated by the development proposals.

“Furthermore, with the low forecast development traffic in real terms, this is expected to continue.”

Despite the site being agricultural land the application say: “It is not considered that the land is sustainable for agricultural purposes.”

Click here to comment on the application.