CAMPAIGNERS are urging Cirencester residents to join their fight against the 2,350-home Bathurst development, after the date for a ruling on the controversial application was announced.

Patrick Moylan, of Save Our Cirencester (SOC), said the campaign group “have never accepted that this huge development is a done deal” and urged as many residents as possible to attend two upcoming public meetings.

Cotswold District Council (CDC) announced last week that a special meeting was to be held at the Baptist Church on Tuesday, September 26, in which councillors will make a decision on the outline planning application.

The Park Community Group has arranged a separate public meeting on the issue, on Tuesday, September 5, from 7pm to 9pm, at the Corn Hall.

“We hope people come along to both of these meetings to emphasise the importance that the public attach to this momentous decision for the future of our unique town,” said Patrick.

“We have done our research and believe that there are planning and government policy reasons why this outline application for 2,350 homes should be reduced in favour of something much smaller, one that stands less chance of harming our town and more chance of being embraced by the community.”

He added: “We would like to see the development reduced to half of what is in the local plan and the application.”

The application for the homes on Chesterton Farm was submitted by Bathurst Development Ltd last January, and includes employment land, a primary school, neighbourhood centre and community facilities.

It has been developed to coincide with CDC’s Local Plan as a site to take much of the government’s housing allocation for the district in one area.

CDC submitted its Local Plan and Community Infrastructure Levy drafts to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on July 7, with an inspector appointed and hearings expected to take place during October and November.

Patrick said the similar dates for the local plan examination and application decision meeting may have been done to “confuse the public and frustrate those who aim, in the spirit of community, to represent the public’s opposition” to the Bathurst development.

“CDC's conduct of community communication for a number of years spanning the Local Plan and, more recently the Chesterton application, has been woeful,” he said.

In CDC’s statement of community involvement (SCI) regarding its approach to developing the Local Plan, it emphasises engagement with the public and ease of access to information.

It states: “Community groups and the wider public will have the opportunities to put forward their own ideas and feel confident that they will be listened to and that there is a process for responding to their concerns.”

However, Patrick, in an email to CDC, said: “We want to unequivocally state that the council has failed to achieve any of these aims and its unwillingness to recognise this must bear on the integrity of the Local Plan.”

He said that he hoped CDC would “bring all this to the attention” of newly appointed Local Plan examination programme manager Tracey Smith, in order to “explore how best to represent these serious concerns”.

In January, the town council urged CDC to adopt the Local Plan before voting on the Chesterton application.

But Patrick said that SOC did not agree with this and instead wanted the Local Plan to be “considered before voting” on the Bathurst application.

“We would like to see the development reduced to half of what is in the local plan and the application,” he added.

A CDC spokesman said: “The SCI sets out how we have consulted with the public during all stages of the preparation of the Local Plan, in accordance with government procedures.

“This will now be considered by the independent inspector through the Local Plan examination and there will be opportunities to express concerns orally at the relevant examination hearing, subject to the inspector’s invitation.”

The inspector’s examination programme and guidance are available to view and download at cotswold.gov.uk/lpexamination.

The spokesman said questions relating to the examination process and how best to represent concerns should be addressed to the programme officer who, like the inspector, works independently of the council.