WHEN you’re looking to build a care home, your first thought should be to avoid flood risk areas; that’s rule one of sensible development surely?

Apparently this is an old-fashioned view to take however, and Wiltshire Council has just granted permission for a 26 home retirement development to be built on a patch of land in Malmesbury that was underwater a few years ago.

It’s not only the flood risk that is putting residents off about the development, it’s also the sheer scale of it.

“The planners have squeezed this plot to the utmost, as if filling in an urban brownfield site,” protested one resident who will be sharing her street with the “massive edifice”, as she describes it.

What is really quite alarming about the plans however, is that nothing seemed to be able to stop them.

The town council has opposed the proposals every step of the way and the Neighbourhood Plan was totally bypassed due to the need for the homes in Wiltshire’s Core Strategy.

Is that where we’ve landed?

Residents warnings about parking and drainage ignored, town councils swept aside and Neighbourhood Plans made redundant.

Time will tell about the effects of the homes on drainage and flooding.

There is still a fair few months of delivery lorries driving on the road ahead before it’s finished anyway...