Bath Road, Chippenham

Proposals for the redevelopment of the former Islington Vauxhall garage on Bath Road, Chippenham SN14 0UX were originally submitted to Wiltshire Council in April 2024 (reference number PL/2024/02731) following local community consultation.

This consultation website was launched on behalf of the new owners of the property, Cinch Self Storage, a highly rated specialist operator of self-storage facilities already operating in Chippenham. The aim was to help local residents, neighbours and other interest groups find out more about the emerging plans and provide their feedback.

Since the submission of the 2024 planning application and the responses to it, Cinch has been looking at a revised approach. Below, we provide information on the existing state of the site and the original 2024 planning application. Changes were then made to the 2024 application which involved reductions in the height and the form of the proposed self-storage building. These have now been withdrawn following a further re-think by Cinch. Further reductions to the building are now proposed and we will now inform the local community about these prior to the submission of a revised application to Wiltshire Council.

We are setting up a live presentation (webinar) for which you can register by clicking the button opposite. We will also provide more information on this website about the proposed new and revised application after the webinar to be held on 27th March 2025.

Existing condition

Located on Bath Road just to the east of the Methuen Park roundabout, the site was previously a car dealership operated by Islington Vauxhall. A range of new and used vehicles were sold while servicing, MOTs, and parts for all makes and models were offered to customers in dedicated workshop areas.

The broadly rectangular self-contained 1.25 acres site is bounded by Bath Road to the south, Kelso Court to the north, Hereford Close to the north east and Ascot Close to the east.

Largely flat, the existing site comprises a two-storey purpose built car showroom with ancillary workshop areas. The showroom has a curved glazed form and large canopy, whilst the workshop areas are contained within a steel framed clad building with a curved roof.

Given its previous use, the site attracted both vehicular trips by customers and employees and also large car transporters. An extensive area of hardstanding was provided to allow for the external parking of cars for sale along with spaces for customers and employees. A barrier was in place at the bottom of Hereford Close to control access, and a fence with lockable gate secured the yard to the rear of the showroom.

Since closure, the building at the site has been internally stripped of all its fixtures and fittings. Following acquisition by Cinch in August 2023 a boundary fence has been erected to improve security whilst the future of the site is decided.

The site is prominent and highly visible from the Bath Road and is a short distance from the Bath Road Retail Park to the south west and the Sainsburys superstore to the west.

Although the frontage of the site with its two metre embankment offers open views from the Bath Road, there are significant belts of trees and vegetation which conceal the site to the west along Sandown Drive and to the east along the boundaries of the properties located in Ascot Drive. The immediate boundary with the properties in Kelso Court/Hereford Close comprises close boarded fencing.

The single access to the site is via Hereford Close which in turn is reached via Newbury Drive. In 2022, a proposed new vehicular access from the Bath Road was approved by Wiltshire Council which remains valid and could be implemented. This allows for a one-way inbound access only from the Bath Road and therefore requires the retention of the access from Hereford Close.

Key features of the original planning application (April 2024)

The proposed approach for the site in the original planning application was to demolish the existing building at the site and replace it with a modern and attractive purpose-built self-storage facility comprising 4,813 sq. m (Gross Internal Area).

Aligned with the Bath Road southern boundary of the site, the originally proposed new building was three storeys (approximately 9.63 metres high to the roof ridge) and located in a similar position to the existing building, although it was extended further east towards the entrance at the bottom of Hereford Close.

As a result of local community consultation on the draft proposals, the western edge of the proposed new building was drawn back some 10.75m, and did not extend as far as the existing building. This created a visual gap on this western edge of the site.

The originally proposed new building was moved 3.35m to the east to accommodate this, and the separation distance with the nearest properties in Ascot Court was 27 metres.

The northern elevation of the proposed building had a minimum separation distance of 21 metres from the nearest property in Kelso Court (some 4.8 metres closer than the existing building).

The original footprint of the building took advantage of the incline of the site which falls to a lower level towards Bath Road. This meant that the building's ridge height would have been broadly consistent with the ridge height of the nearest residential properties.

The low profile pitched roof in the original planning application scheme was designed to be consistent with the neighbouring roof patterns. Overlooking of properties was not an issue as there were be no windows on the northern flank of the building which faces Kelso Court.

Revisions to the original application

Since the original planning application was submitted in April 2024, there was an initial round of changes which involved reducing the height of the proposed building and stepping it back from the nearest residential properties at Kelso Court.

You can see the original proposals by downloading the drop-in session panels and presentation made at the webinar (November and December 2023).

You can also see the changes that were made to the original 2024 application by downloading the panels we showed at a further drop-in session held on site in September 2024.

The very latest revisions will be presented at the webinar on 27th March and then we will make information presented available for download on this website. Please register for the webinar if you would like to watch the live presentation and have the opportunity of asking questions and giving your feedback.