Wiltshire Design Guide moves a step closer to being formally adopted

Wiltshire Council's Cabinet agreed earlier this week (Tuesday 6 February) that its Wiltshire Design Guide, which will help to ensure future developments in the county are consistently of a high-quality design, should go forward for formal adoption at this month's Full Council meeting.

The draft Wiltshire Design Guide has been structured around the '10 characteristics of good design', as described in the National Design Guide, and if adopted will be used as a supplementary planning document. These characteristics help to ensure that all aspects of good design are considered, and it is not singularly focused on the appearance of new buildings.

This means the Wiltshire Design Guide should provide new, locally-authored design guidance that would apply across Wiltshire at a level of detail that does not exist in the national equivalent. The guide will advise on good practice when building houses and other developments and help to ensure that designs comply with local priorities and preferences.

The draft guide went out to public consultation for six weeks between 3 July and 14 August. In total, 157 responses were received from individuals and organisations, raising more than 1,200 points for the council to consider. Where appropriate, the Wiltshire Design Guide has been amended to address the responses received.

At its meeting on Tuesday 6 February, Wiltshire Council's Cabinet agreed the guide should go forward for final approval. The guide is now in its final format and will go to Full Council on 20 February so a final decision can be made whether to formally adopt it as a supplementary planning document.

Cllr Nick Botterill, Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning, said: "The Wiltshire Design Guide represents a step change in our approach and will help ensure that future local developments of whatever sort are consistent, high quality and in keeping with what we'd expect in our beautiful and unique county.

"The guide will complement existing and important planning documents such as our Local Plan, Neighbourhood Plans and Village Design Statements. It will also help us to achieve what we've set out in our Business Plan, particularly in helping create a resilient society, a thriving economy and a sustainable environment.

"Following a really useful consultation exercise, I'm pleased we're almost at the point of it being formally adopted as a supplementary planning document and I look forward to it being discussed soon at Full Council."