Welcome to the Rudloe and environs website.

 

Here you will find news, articles and photos of an area that straddles the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in north-west Wiltshire.

 

Contributions in the form of articles or photos are welcome. Even those with completely contrary views to mine!

 

Thanks to the website builder 1&1 and Rob Brown for the original idea.

 

Rudloescene now, in January 2014, has a sister, academic rather than anarchic, website about Box history here: http://www.boxpeopleandplaces.co.uk/

It contains thoroughly professional, well-researched articles about Box and its people.

 

Contact rudloescene through the 'Contact' page.

rudloescene
rudloescene

The 170-home Redcliffe development has begun on Park Lane (this picture from 27th October 2017). The poppy and rape seeds will have been lying dormant since the planting of the miscanthus around twelve years ago. Against professional advice, the miscanthus was ploughed up, which could mean that it will reappear in the gardens and drives of the new homes. Note that all previous articles on this Redcliffe development were under 'Bradford Road' (Bradford Road) but now that Redcliffe has decided to abandon the Bradford Road access to the estate, this and all future articles will be here under 'Park Lane'.

21st November 2023 - this 'Park Lane' webpage has seen little activity since the commotion over the Park Place development in 2018. However, another development is now proposed in the remaining green space between Park Place and Skynet Drive. This 'news' was initially reported in the 'News', 'Rudloe' webpage but as that page is just about at capacity and the proposed entrance to the development is in Park Lane, this webpage (which has plenty of capacity) would appear to be an appropriate repository.

 

The planning application number for the development is PL/2023/04816 (the application 'documents' page may be found on the Wiltshire Council Planning webpages here: https://development.wiltshire.gov.uk/pr/s/planning-application/a0i3z00001AyzTrAAJ/pl202304816?tabset-8903c=2) and the eighty 'comments' (mainly objections, including mine) are here: https://development.wiltshire.gov.uk/pr/s/planning-application/a0i3z00001AyzTrAAJ/pl202304816?tabset-8903c=3).

 

As reported above, all of the comments from local people were objections and a number of the comments from official bodies (Highways, MoD, Wiltshire Council's Senior Landscape Officer, Wiltshire Council's Drainage Engineer, English Heritage Archeology, Wessex Water and Corsham Town Council) were also objections.

 

As I indicate in my objection, Corsham Science Park phase I was speculative and there was no business or planning imperative to lose greenfield at Rudloe for a pharmaceuticals hub. Similarly, there is no imperative now for a further, speculative light industrial estate (see my objection here: https://development.wiltshire.gov.uk/pr/s/web-comment/a073z00001QMtxwAAD/paul-turners-comments?tabset-ae70b=2).

 

These speculative, industrial developments at Rudloe are contrivances for the benefit of the principals of Bath ASU and Pharmaxo Ltd through the vehicle Johafiky Investments Ltd. (see the Companies House website here: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/09033513/officers for their details).  In the application from Johafiky, we find that the 'existing use' of the site is (of course) 'agricultural'. The hypocrisy of paying lip service to the preservation of our green fields and farmland whilst sanctioning development is prevalent in our planning system - let's hope it doesn't happen in this case. Interesting that information, relating to the owner of the field and the applicants (the developers), in the planning application is redacted. This may be normal practice but this strikes me as redolent of surreptitious goings-on and that those involved are ashamed of their roles in the affair (they should be). The owner is David Gibbons of Corsham, the developers are Johafiky whose principals may be found as indicated above.

 

The field has been down to Miscanthus (elephant grass) for many years now; previously oilseed rape could be found here - see the photos below taken in the time of oilseed rape and see the gallery further below for current photos of the Miscanthus.

5th August 2018 - this 'news' item appears under Park Lane but could just as well have been elsewhere as its subject (as far as rudloescene is concerned) is west Corsham development. The following video footage shows the Bellway Copenacre and Redcliffe Park Place developments from the air. The first 33 seconds is 'skippable' but the rest is fascinating. A 'conspiracy' video may well follow after the first - this also has some interesting aerial footage, especially the wide views of the Wiltshire landscape, but take the underlying message with a pinch of salt.

26th February 2018 - the Redcliffe Park Lane development continues apace - see the latest photo gallery below. However, the dirty tricks (see the Bradford Road pages for details) continue. Back in June 2017, one of Redcliffe's planning applications for this site, 17/06091/VAR, was open for representations (comments) by the public. By 10th August, six representations, including mine, could be found on the Wiltshire Council planning webpage. Now, only three of those representations remain; mine and two others have 'disappeared'. I have asked the planning officer involved to explain but have, so far, received no response (response now received - see the email exchange in the Word file below). There were, in fact, ten representations in total which have miraculously reappeared within hours of my query. My representation may be found in the .pdf file below:

email exchange with Mark Staincliffe ref[...]
Microsoft Word document [11.7 KB]
representation on Redcliffe's 17-06091-V[...]
Adobe Acrobat document [1.7 MB]

10th February 2018 - the Redcliffe speculation starts to consume the west Corsham landscape. The diagram below shows part of one of the development plans which appears to bear only a passing relationship to the houses under construction. And the diagrammatical plots appear far larger than the actualite ("actualitay"). The houses at plots 104 and 105 lie below others (and perhaps others do too) and the ground floors appear to be below current ground/road level. See the photographs below.

Dark clouds over west Corsham as farmland needed for our self-sufficiency (following Brexit) is surrendered to tarmac and reconstituted block
Houses on plots 108 and 109 - the roof lines are nothing like those on the plan (and see how close the rear neighbours are)
The sunken 'Sherston' at plots 104 and 105 with (apparently) the ground floor below SUDS (attenuation pond) level and the roof line significantly lower than the overlooking houses behind
Concrete edging for the attenuation pond; chimney of the Pickwick mine site beyond

The urbanisation of west Corsham is proceeding apace in spite of Corsham Town Council's strategic plan, the Wiltshire Council Core Strategy and the North Wiltshire Landscape Character Assessment. No apologies for repeating that this is the result of one of many lies abroad in the land; this one was that one of David Cameron's 2010 election promises was that planning decisions would be put into the hands of local communities. The exact opposite has happened and not by chance but by the hand of central government through the devices of the National Planning Policy Framework and the Planning Inspectorate.

Dark days ahead for west Corsham with over eight-hundred homes under construction or planned and local services - Pickwick Stores, The Two Pigs, Rudloe shop, Hawthorn Stores and Post Office and Rudloe Community Centre - all gone
The urbanisation of west Corsham with the 170-home Redcliffe, Park Lane development in the foreground and the 100-home Bellway, Copenacre development beyond
Rudloe Firs woodland still seen from Park Lane at present but this view will soon disappear behind timber-framed houses (the blockwork in the foreground is for garages which have to be separated, for safety reasons, from the dwellings by stonework).
The timber structure of the houses has been chosen, I would imagine, principally because it is cheaper than 'traditional' blockwork
Close-up of the timber house structure
On-site ready-mix
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© Paul Turner