Parking in Wood Street Members of Swindon Borough Council’s planning committee will meet tonight to consider three items. Planning officers have brought back a report on the borough’s parking standards – guidelines on how many parking spaces should be provided for new developments or conversions. When it was first considered in May, councillors asked for it to be looked at again. The key issues surrounded whether Old Town should be part of the central area where no parking is needed, and whether conversions of houses to HMOs should be made to include parking spaces. The new policy does now mandate parking provision for HMOs but still includes Old Town as part of the central zone. This means new houses and offices would not need to come with parking spaces.
And one – if refused – could see a nearly-completed five-bedroom house knocked down. Sue Curtis has applied for retrospective permission for the house at Costow Farm Cottages off Costow Lane in Wroughton, which is very nearly built – but officers have suggested to committee members they refuse permission. It is not illegal to build a house before planning permission is granted, but it does run the risk of having to knock it down if no consent is then given. The report says the new building is almost exactly the same as the plans for a house on the site which was refused permission last year – the only difference being obscure glass for a downstairs bathroom, a new window and changed to planting and landscaping.