10 hours Ago
Urgent work is needed to keep worshippers at a listed church in Malmesbury safe. An application has been submitted by building firm AC Nurden, on behalf of the Kings Church in Abbey Row. It says the front porch over the entrance to the Grade II-listed building, which was put up as a Baptist Chapel in 1802 is in a dangerous state.
It says: “The front porch is in a dangerous condition and needs urgent repair and rebuild. This has rendered the main entrance to the church unusable and the church is currently accessed via a separate entrance.” The application says that removing the porch, repairing cracks and using steel roads to strengthen the structure before reconstruction will not alter the appearance of the building.
In Calne a large solar farm could remain in operation until 2054. When permission was granted to install High Penn Solar Farm on farmland to the east of the town, it said the park could continue generating power for 25 years from its first operating date in 2014. Now the London-based Foresight Group, which operates the farm has asked to extend that operating life to 40 years, ending 29 years from now.
Its application says: “Market changes and technological advancement allow solar farms to be maintained for longer periods. This application proposes no physical changes to the solar farm or any of the mitigation measures previously permitted. The panels themselves are also capable of an electricity generating life much greater than the 25-year period.
“The solar farm can continue to operate viably beyond the 25-year period in a subsidy-free market and can make very effective use of the existing infrastructure and grid connection during years 25-40 and continue to make a significant contribution to renewable energy generation targets.” New warehouses and distribution centres could be coming to both Chippenham and Melksham. In the former, transport and haulage company DK Barnsley & Sons Ltd, currently based in Melksham, wants to build a new warehouse and office block on green land just to the south of Junction 17 of the M4 near Chippenham Pit Stop.
The new facility would include separate parking areas for staff and extensive hardstanding for lorries to park on. The haulage company says the plan would allow it to expand: “The company is currently based on the Bowerhill Industrial Estate, employing 20 permanent lorry drivers, as well as outsourcing work to an additional 20 drivers, and employing five full time office and administrative staff. “Given the constraints of its existing site, further expansion is not possible and has led the applicant to consider alternatives.
” The company has owned the site off the M4 for some years and says the site would allow it to expand. In Melksham Coombe Castle International which has a plant in the industrial development off Beanacre Road and Bath Road South of the railway station wants to build a new warehouse in the car park of its existing building. The award-winning dairy says in its application that it needs extra storage : “To accommodate increased output following continued growth in the international market.
“Coombe Castle currently employs 40 local people and remains committed to investing in its existing site and workforce. The new building will be accommodated on vacant hardstanding that is currently fenced off and not in beneficial use.” In Bradford on Avon the Luxury Family Hotel Group wants to install children’s play equipment in two areas in the grounds of Wooley Grange Hotel in Woolley Green to the north east of the town.
The company says the equipment would be made of timber and includes a zip-line for the use of older children and climbing frames for younger children..
