Architect Secures Planning Consent for 90 Homes on Constrained Swindon Site

An architectural designer has secured planning consent for 90 new homes on a constrained site on the edge of Highworth, Swindon, on behalf of Taylor Wimpey Bristol.

Swindon Borough Council granted hybrid planning consent on 2 July 2026 for the residential development, including associated infrastructure and landscaping. Outline consent was also secured for a 75-bed care home and 0.25 hectares of employment space.

The site lies beyond Highworth’s settlement boundary and had faced a number of challenges, including underground pipelines, overhead power cables, a contractual right of access and restrictions around the existing shared access road.

These complications had previously prevented the scheme from progressing, with prolonged discussions taking place over access arrangements.

Planning Consent Secured

The Noble Consultancy was appointed by Taylor Wimpey Bristol to lead the architecture and planning strategy, working with the council to identify a way through the constraints.

As design work progressed, further issues were identified, including a domestic pipeline along the northern boundary, another crossing the site diagonally, overhead cables, and a contractual right of connection to a neighbouring property that could not be diverted.

Each constraint reduced the developable area and required the proposals to be revised in negotiation with landscape and highways officers.

To overcome these challenges, The Noble Consultancy proposed a hybrid application as a way to keep the scheme moving. The 90-home residential element, including open space and highways, was submitted as a detailed application with a revised access location. The care home and employment land were instead submitted in outline, allowing those elements to be resolved separately.

As project lead, The Noble Consultancy coordinated the engineers, landscape and ecology consultants, alongside the client, and responded to comments from the council’s highways, landscape and ecology officers throughout the application.

Outcome

The resulting consent covers 90 homes, with 30% designated as affordable housing.

It is also the first development to be approved beyond both Highworth’s settlement boundary and the town’s ring road.

Steven Trythall, Senior Planner at The Noble Consultancy, commented on the approval: “This site had several long-standing constraints – access, utilities, a right of way through the site, that had been unresolved for some time.

“Our role was to work through those issues with the council and the client, and to find an application strategy that let part of the scheme progress. Splitting it into a hybrid application meant the residential element could move forward while the care home and employment land are resolved separately.”

The Noble Consultancy worked closely with Swindon Borough Council throughout the application, along with Joshua Kettlety and Nick Courtney at Taylor Wimpey Bristol, Matthew Kendrick at Grassroots Planning, Prue Hilditch and Jai Tang at ACD Environmental, and Dafydd Rees, Ryan James and Ben Stoodley at Tumu Consulting.

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