{"id":757626,"date":"2026-06-24T07:42:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T07:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/757626\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T07:42:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T07:42:23","slug":"plan-to-build-700-homes-on-golf-course-are-shelved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/757626\/","title":{"rendered":"Plan to build 700 homes on golf course are shelved"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Plans to build up to 700 homes on an old golf course have been paused after new council leaders called them &#8220;excessive for a small market town&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The original proposals for Highworth near Swindon \u2013 put forward by the previous Labour-led Swindon Borough Council \u2013 included retaining half of the land for green space and building 400 or 700 homes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">More than 200 people have campaigned against the plans, saying the site was an important haven for wildlife and a valued green space.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Jake Chandler, from the new Conservative-led council, said: &#8220;We&#8217;ve made a pledge that we wanted to see the golf course turned into the fifth country park in Swindon, that&#8217;s our aspiration.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>More from Wiltshire<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In 2025, Swindon Borough Council officers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cly3p18w1yzo?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:recommended building 700 homes;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;recommended building 700 homes&quot;}\" class=\"link \">recommended building 700 homes<\/a> on the old golf course to help meet affordable housing needs and provide more return for taxpayers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Chandler, deputy leader of the council, has not entirely ruled out building on the site.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He said: &#8220;We haven&#8217;t closed the door to exploring all options round the golf course&#8230; but we&#8217;re determined to keep the golf course green.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Chandler said the authority would be working with Highworth Town Council and partners on the development of the land as a country park.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"David Green, an older man with grey hair and beard and black rimmed glasses smiles at the camera, in a pub setting. \" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/22ee25d27d537f73e26169f688d1c389.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Campaigner David Green has worked for years to protect the old golf course [BBC]<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The 102-acre site has been owned by the council since the 1970s and has been publicly accessible since the golf course closed in 2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">David Green is part of the Keep Our Golf Course Green campaign which has sought to protect the land from housing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He said the shelving of housing plans was &#8220;brilliant news&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;I&#8217;ve watched it re-wild from a golf course, it&#8217;s absolutely amazing,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It&#8217;s a haven, its a green space, its a lung.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The borough council is to publish its updated local plan by the end of the year, which will set out where homes will be built across the borough.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Michael Sly, an estate agent in Highworth, said: &#8220;All kind of homes are needed but especially property that people can afford to buy: shared ownership, social housing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Highworth is the only market town in Swindon, if you make it too big it gets swallowed up and loses its identity.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Follow BBC Wiltshire on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BBCRadioWiltshire\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:Facebook;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Facebook&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BBCWiltshire\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:X;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;X&quot;}\" class=\"link \">X<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/bbcwiltshire\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:Instagram;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Instagram&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Instagram<\/a>. Send your story ideas to us on email or via <a href=\"https:\/\/bbc.in\/47DEoQy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630&quot;}\" class=\"link \">WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>More on this story<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plans to build up to 700 homes on an old golf course have been paused after new council&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":757627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,270253,622,18692,28379,270254,1892,270255,82,270256,270252],"class_list":["post-757626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-david-green","tag-golf","tag-golf-course","tag-green-space","tag-highworth","tag-homes","tag-jake-chandler","tag-sports","tag-swindon","tag-swindon-borough-council"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}