Swindon residents object to £700m Honda redevelopment
The Borough Council says the proposed site would create around 7,000 new jobs
Huge buildings looming over residential gardens, light pollution, traffic and even the lack of provision for non-motorised traffic accessing the site are all reasons neighbours and nearby residents have for objecting to huge plans for the former Honda plant.
Swindon Borough Council’s planning committee will next week consider the plans put forward by developer Panattoni for the South Marston site which was vacated by the Japanese carmaker in July 2021.
The £700m investment would see 10 buildings of various sizes built all over the site which can be used for industrial production or warehousing and distribution.
While the report of the council’s planning officer to members of the committee recommends approval, and the leadership of the Conservative administration is also in favour, there have been a number of concerns raised about the plans by people nearby.
A major issue is the size of the proposed buildings particularly to the west of the site, backing on to houses in South Marston village. Some houses in Highworth Road and Greenfields share a boundary with the industrial site.
Whereas now there are a few hundred yards between the gardens and buildings, the Panattoni development will see industrial buildings built much closer to the boundary.
'I hope we can continue our lives in harmony with the site'
Mary Case, who lives in Greenfields told planners that some of the buildings would be taller than the trees on the boundary, and “obviously visible” from the houses in the street.
“A compromise would be for smaller units to be nearer the village boundary, the taller ones nearer the A419.
“I hope as a village we can continue our lives in harmony with the site.”
Steven Charnock who lives in Thornhill Road was concerned with that and light pollution: “With warehouses at 25 metres high they will form an intrusive visual barrier when looking out of our windows. from the inevitable floodlighting that will be put at roof level on these buildings, it will mean we live in permanent daylight. It will disrupt the wildlife in St. Julian’s wood. We’ve seen the intrusive nature of such lighting already from the sheds at Keypoint.“
Susan Floyd who lives in Highworth Road in South Marston was concerned about security, especially the public will be able to freely access the site which has until now been securely locked. She wrote: “Residential gardens run adjacent to the southern and eastern boundaries and are well protected by a chain link fence, mature trees, bushes and hedgerow. A large proportion of residents are elderly, vulnerable and extremely anxious as to how this will affect their safety.”
A Mr & Mrs Campbell also of Highworth Road are concerned about traffic and want restrictions on routes and hours that lorries can use to get to the site.
'The site needs redesigning to be serviced by rail'
But Adrian Crafer from Old Walcot thought the design of the site did not take into account environmental concerns and would not be adapted to changes in transport. He said the buildings should have solar panels installed as standard and added: “The site as designed relies totally on lorry transport in and out.”
Mr Crafer said the cessation of petrol car sales would in time lead to a lack of production of diesel for good vehicles, and also the vehicles themselves and a movement back to using railways to transport freight.
He added: “The site needs redesigning to allow building to be serviced by rail. The redesign should show the rail corridors, even if the track is not laid initially.”
The planning committee will meet at 6pm on Tuesday April 11 at the council chamber in Euclid Street.