HUNDREDS of people wrote to Stroud District Council last autumn to oppose the development at Holywell Farm; no one wrote in supporting it.

The developers are now going to appeal, claiming the field is not valuable visually and that this development will benefit Wotton-under-Edge.

Oxford Law’s main argument is that the proposed estate will not constitute a major development.

Under current planning law major developments in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty are discouraged, whereas minor ones are permissible.

Stroud District Council has opposed this scheme and classified it as a major development.

Oxford Law will argue that 25 houses don’t constitute a huge increase to a town of 5,000 people.

But any walker leaving Wotton on the footpath to Holywell can easily see that within the context of the beautiful Tiley Bottom it is indeed a major development, linking Wotton visually with Holywell, and would be very visible from both the Cotswold Way and the road from Tetbury.

The new occupiers will have to drive along Old Town to get to work.

New houses are already planned in other parts of Wotton, hundreds of new houses are being built in villages nearby.

The developers claim that a Holywell Farm estate will only contribute a limited extra number of cars onto Wotton’s roads.

Even if this were true, this could be the last straw which results in Wotton’s roads being gridlocked.

How inconsistent of the developers to claim both that the development will be of significant benefit to the town, but also that it will cause minimal impact on our infrastructure, including traffic.

Many of your readers will have already written to the council to oppose this development, but if you have any further thoughts, please contact the planning inspectorate by emailing Peter.Kozak@pins.gsi.gov.uk using the reference APP/C1625/W/17/3175953 by August 15.

Helen Roberts

Court Meadow

Wotton-under-Edge