PLANS have been submitted for up to 82 homes on land next to a business park on Netherhampton Road.

The Freehold Consortium for Harnham Business Park have submitted an application to Wiltshire Council for the properties between the business park and current housing.

They would include nine one-bedroom flats, 36 two-bedroom houses, 36 three-bedroom houses and one house with four or more bedrooms, with a mix of social and private housing.

The proposals also include 172 parking spaces.

The site in question has previously been rejected for housing because it was earmarked for business use, namely the relocation from businesses currently on Churchfields industrial estate.

The plans do not form part of an ongoing proposal for 740 new homes in Harnham as part of Wiltshire Council’s housing allocation plan.

Chairman of Netherhampton Parish Council Paul Cunningham said: “On the one hand, it looks like a reasonable use of that land that has lain unused for years. It is a moderate-sized development with a sensible mix of accommodation so it would be unreasonable to object.

“On the other hand, if approved it confirms that everyone has formally given up on plans to encourage business to move away from Churchfields, and that amounts to failure of political will, obvious as it is how paramount that objective should be. And here’s yet another piecemeal development that slips through the net, sufficiently moderate in size to allow Wiltshire and Salisbury Council to duck the implications for infrastructure.

“If only there were some evidence, somewhere of a plan.”

A consultation on the plans will run until Thursday, June 14. Visit wiltshire.gov.uk/planning-applications-search and use the reference 18/04067/OUT.