THE TRUST FOR DEVIZES
CONSERVING OUR HERITAGE
© 2007 to 2010 The Trust for Devizes
The Threat to Quakers’ Walk Still Exists - Watch this Space!
Wiltshire NHS has announced that it no longer looking to build the Primary Care Centre on Quakers Walk and that is very welcome news. However it is now known that St Monica Trust will continue with its application for a Retirement Village, a Care Home and a Dementia Unit at the town end of Quakers Walk.
The Trust is committed to keeping the land adjacent to Quakers Walk as open space. It is hard to think of any other place where one can step out of a town and be in the depth of the country within a matter of a few yards. This is the beauty of Quakers’ Walk which may well be threatened after we have just beaten off proposals for the Primary Care Centre, and a proposal to tarmac and light the Walk, a move which would have turned it into an urban footpath!
Why is it necessary to build on one of the few open public spaces so close to the town? The draft Wiltshire Strategic plan envisaged it being kept as an open space. The Government, when defining Sustainable Development stresses that green open spaces should be provided for the community to enjoy.
The St. Monica Trust has been at pains to point out that its proposals will generate very little traffic because the Village is pretty-well self-contained. Our response is that, if that is the case, the village can be built just about anywhere. So please leave our beloved Quakers Walk in peace.
The announcement by NHS Wiltshire followed hard on the heels of the Public Meeting called by the Trust, where over 160 people registered a strong protest at the proposed PCC. We will continue to fight for Quakers Walk and other open spaces in our town.
Public Meeting votes to reject plans
Upward of 150 people attended the Public Meeting called by the Trust on 18 March to debate the issues around St Monica Trust’s proposals for the land adjacent to Quakers Walk.
Dr Alan Cowley, a retired Consultant Cardiologist explained his concerns over the ability of the proposed site to meet the needs of the community and the disadvantages of separating the Primary Care Centre from the NHS Treatment Centre. Tony Sedgwick, the Trust’s Traffic Advisor, dealt with the issues of traffic and parking provision.
This was followed by numerous comments, suggestions and questions from the floor. Finally the meeting voted overwhelmingly in favour of advising the Devizes Area Board that the meeting agreed that :
|
1.
|
The land adjacent to Quakers Walk should remain a green open space in accord with Government policy for sustainable communities.
|
|
2.
|
The Traffic that will be generated by the proposed development will add very considerably to the congestion on London Road.
|
|
3.
|
The proposed Primary Care Centre has no possibility of future expansion and totally inadequate parking provision and therefore is not “fit for purpose”.
|
|
4.
|
This meeting calls on Wiltshire Council to refuse the Planning Application and on Wiltshire NHS to revert to the Marshall Road Site.
|
