Wednesday 4th February 2026
Sent to members and supporters of EBBRAG, from the EBBRAG Committee:
Please find below a new update from EBBRAG. It concerns the latest process for the Warminster Neighbourhood Plan (NP). We apologise for the length of information contained but we believe it is necessary for you to complete the Town Council NP survey.
Note once completed and submitted you can not resubmit or change the content, so take care before submitting!
Regards EBBRAG.
Neighbourhood Plan Consultation – Why Your Response Matters
The draft Warminster Neighbourhood Plan (NP) has been approved to enter the next stage of the NP process, called Regulation 14. This requires the Town Council (TC) to ask residents to comment on the draft NP through an online survey.
EBBRAG attended the extraordinary TC meeting on 19 Jan 26 where the next stage was approved. EBBRAG wrote to each councillor before the meeting objecting to the inclusion of Home Farm & The Yew Tree pub (called site selection) in the draft NP and asked for their withdrawal from the plan.
During the meeting, four EBBRAG members raised further objections based on fact and logic. All the councillors (including 3 East Ward councillors) approved, without debate or question, the draft NP’s move to the next stage.
EBBRAG apologies for the length of this update but its contents are important for you to understand.
TC draft NP Survey dates
You can complete the survey from Monday 26 January 2026 until midnight on Monday 23 March 2026.
You do not have to answer every question, nor do you need to provide detailed comments to submit a response. A simple yes or no is sufficient per question.
Key Issues You May Wish to Consider
You are, of course, free to complete the TC survey using your own views. EBBRAG has, however, compiled the following facts and topics that you may find relevant and helpful when answering the questions if you wish to. It is important, however, you register your insistence that Home Farm and Yew Tree are removed from the draft NP.
1. Scale of Development Coming to Warminster
Current known developments planned for Warminster to 2042 (recently increased from 2038) include:
- Jubilee Gardens (WUE): up to 1,550 houses (initial phase 1,000 to 2026)
- Cley Hill View (Not part of the WUE): 227 houses
- Ashley Coombe: 77 houses (speculative)
- Westbury Road: 205 houses (speculative)
- Home Farm: 135 houses
- Grovelands: 68 houses
- Total: 2,262 new houses
(This does not include small developments or infill.)
2. Population Impact Office of National Statistics (ONS) average household size in 2024 was 2.35 people. Therefore:
- Current population of Warminster: 18,000
- 2,262 homes = approx. 5,300 new residents
- This represents almost a one-third increase in Warminster’s population.
Where are the new residents coming from?
3. Traffic and Cars Based on 2024 National Travel Survey data, 100% of new households represent 34% with two or more cars, 44% with one car and 22% with no cars.
The conservative estimate is Warminster by 2042 will have to contend with an estimated 2,525 additional cars.
Traffic congestion is already severe at peak times, especially:
- East Street
- Boreham Road
- Woodcock Road
- Westbury Road
- Weymouth Street
- Particularly around school opening and closing times
4. Education Capacity Department for Education averages show 2,262 new houses generate:
- 566 new primary school places
- 294 new secondary school places
No clear plan exists for where or how these places will be provided.
5. Medical and Other Infrastructure There is no confirmed plan showing how increased demand for:
- GP, dental and medical services (Although note the Avenue Surgery is extending into the old Boots Pharmacy apparently)
- Schools
- Roads and traffic management
- Emergency services
- Shops and employment
will be met. Responsibility is repeatedly deferred to external county or national bodies, without evidence of delivery, cost or completion.
6. Water, Sewage, and Flooding Based on 2024 ONS averages, 5,300 new residents will require:
· Over 791,000 litres of additional water per day
· Which produces over 713,000 litres of wastewater per day.
· Pumping stations in Warminster are already at capacity and discharge into the River Wylye during high-flow events.
· Flood storage areas downstream are already operating beyond capacity.
7. Impact on the River Wylye
The River Wylye is a globally recognised rare chalk stream that is hydrologically linked to the River Avon (a Special Area of Conservation) and is already highly phosphate sensitive.
Despite this, the draft NP does not demonstrate that there is a solution for the problem, that mitigation will be in place and wastewater systems can cope with the additional 713,000 litres of wastewater per day produced. This does not cater for infill and brownfield development.
Further, the draft plan fails to show legal environmental protections are being met.
8. Loss of Green Space
The draft NP emphasises protecting green spaces, yet site selection directly undermines this.
For example, Home Farm, as the principal site selected, is a historic, beautiful, rural site outside the settlement boundary and is not required based on current the Wiltshire housing need figures of 90 houses published in September 2023. It is also believed the medieval village of Boreham was founded on Home Farm fields.
Development would permanently affect countryside views, wildlife, recreation and wellbeing for those in East Warminster.
9. Highway Safety
The proposed Home Farm access is just after a blind bend on Boreham Road (leaving Warminster), which is highly dangerous and many accidents have occurred in recent years close to the proposed entrance.
For this reason, the same proposed access was rejected by both Highways and a Planning Inspector in 2019, with the additional comment that a significant wall will need to be demolished. This in turn would have a detrimental effect on the historic vista of Boreham Road.
10. Concerns About the NP Process
The process to date has raised concerns regarding poor communication with residents (who knew of the survey?), ignoring earlier survey results (61% of respondents opposed Home Farm inclusion), limited engagement with major local employers (Bishopstrow Hotel and GEA) and reliance on an unaccountable consultant at public expense costing an estimated £33,000 so far (£16,000 from Warminster Council tax!)
Are we, the residents, getting value for money from our council taxes?
Finally If You Are Short on Time
If you do not wish to answer every question, you may also wish to include a statement such as:
If the draft Neighbourhood Plan continues to include site selection, which I am strongly against, I will consider whether the Town Council has genuinely listened to residents. This in turn may well affect my support for the Plan at referendum.
To access the draft Town NP please highlight, then right click and open with this link.
To access the NP survey, please highlight the following link, then right click and open with https:www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/3KNZGD/.
As David Attenborough has stated on his recent programme: Make space for nature and a greener town is a healthier town.
Any problems, confusion or concerns don’t hesitate to contact us.
EBBRAG.
info@ebbrag.com
www.ebbrag.com
