A SCHEME to transform the old UKLF headquarters in Wilton will go before Wiltshire Council’s strategic planning committee on Wednesday.

It includes an innovative veterans’ care community providing homes, training and jobs for vulnerable ex-service men and women and those facing redundancy.

Also in the plans is a community-owned enterprise centre providing space for small-scale established businesses and start-ups and hot-desking facilities for home workers, with child care close by.

The Wilton Hill project has broad approval from residents, Wilton Town Council, and Wilton Community Land Trust, and planners are urging the committee to approve it.

Redrow Homes’ planning application has two elements.

The first is for full permission for a conventional development of 292 homes, 30 of them affordable, mainly on the northern part of the site.

The second is for outline permission for the veterans’ facilities, including a care home, the business hub, a convenience store, and about 40 retirement homes. The proposal makes use of existing roads and pathways on the site, extending them into a network of new streets, footpaths and cycleways with links to the town centre.

There was strong support in Wilton for a campaign to have the site developed as an ‘eco park’, but cllr Peter Edge, who supported the campaign said: “While this may not be the ideal that was originally envisaged, it is far and away the best compromise we could come up with. The developers have been working with the community at every stage and taking on board their recommendations.

“The veterans’ community could be a pilot project to show the way forward nationally.”

There are objections from the Georgian Group about the potential impact on the setting of Wilton House and its parkland.

There are also objections on road safety and sustainable transport grounds from traffic campaigners, and Salisbury Civic Society has concerns about the layout and design.

The developers would also have to contribute to the cost of a new primary school to be built at Fugglestone Red.