Development free-for-all could be over

Towns such as Melksham, Westbury and Calne have experienced unplanned greenfield development in recent years because the administration at County Hall couldn't organise a five year supply of developable land for housing.

Now, two months before an election, it's been announced that the land supply figure has jumped up to 5.73 years in North and West Wilts, so the crisis - which with competent management would never have happened in the first place - is over.

Developers will now normally be permitted to build only on those sites allocated in the Wiltshire Core Strategy.