The Salisbury Neighbourhood Development Plan (SNDP) Steering Group have released a new master plan for the development of Churchfields, Salisbury, and will be holding a consultation to discuss the plans on Wednesday 2nd February 2022.

The SNDP say that many people have contacted them to share their concerns about the Churchfields area including the traffic it causes in the rest of the City, the need to have a thriving business environment but also provide necessary housing, and the relocation of some of the more difficult land use such as the tip.

According to the group, Wiltshire Council previously put forward proposals for Churchfields which were set out in the Core Policy 20, which planned to transform the area into an 1100 house residential scheme. However, this did not happen and is now acknowledged as unlikely.

The new master plan aims to accommodate the businesses already at Churchfields while taking advantage of unused land that would be would be vacated by Wiltshire Council to provide limited housing that benefits from the natural features of the river and its proximity to the train station.

“If businesses want to stay and grow, we have set out urban design principles how this could be done to improve the environment,” says the SNDP’s statement on the City Council website.

The plan states, “Sensitive, gradual change at Churchfields could bring many benefits to Salisbury.

“The principal drivers for change include:

helping to retain young people in Salisbury with affordable housing and Workspaces;
reducing the impacts on the City Centre of unsuitably large and polluting vehicles;
And promoting greener ways of living and working in response to the climate emergency.”

The plan’s vision for the Churchfields site “will be a vibrant, lowcarbon, mixed community, characterised by a high quality urban environment that is in harmony with the attractive landscape setting and heritage of the city.

“Churchfields will retain and intensify the commercial uses and provide a gradual transition to residential which should co-exist with the commercial land uses. It will be will be a lowcar settlement, promoting limited through routes within the development and focusing on walking and cycling, and accessible and competitive public transport opportunities.”

You can access the full master plan here.

A one-hour online presentation and Q & A session to discuss the master plan will be held on Wednesday 2nd of February at 9am – hosted by the City Council via Teams.

You can attend the meeting via this link. This meeting will be recorded so you can watch it again at a later date.

The steering group would like to know whether residents support the proposals. If you don’t, the group ask what they need to do to make them better. Churchfields businesses are also being urged to submit their views.

You can send your comments to planning@salisburycitycouncil.gov.uk