The Noble Consultancy secures detailed consent for 90 homes on constrained Swindon site

The Noble Consultancy successfully led the architecture and planning strategy for a residential-led, mixed-use scheme on a constrained site on the edge of Highworth, on behalf of Taylor Wimpey Bristol.

Swindon Borough Council granted hybrid planning consent on 2 July 2026, following a process complicated by underground pipelines, overhead power cables, a contractual right of access and site access limitations. Detailed consent was granted for 90 dwellings, associated infrastructure and landscaping. Outline consent was also secured for a 75-bed care home and 0.25ha of employment space.

The site sits beyond Highworth's settlement boundary and was subject to an application for outline consent for the same. Complications with the shared access road serving the site led to prolonged discussions with the council, and the scheme was unable to progress.

The Noble Consultancy's role

The Noble Consultancy was appointed by Taylor Wimpey Bristol to lead the architecture and planning strategy, working with Swindon Borough Council to identify a way through the constraints. As design work progressed, further issues were identified: 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 design to be revised in negotiation with landscape and highways officers.

The Noble Consultancy proposed a hybrid application as a way to keep the scheme moving: submitting the residential element (all 90 homes, open space and highways, with a revised access location) as a full, detailed application, while leaving the care home and employment land in outline to be resolved separately.

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

Outcome

The consent covers 90 homes, 30% of them affordable, and is the first development approved beyond Highworth's settlement boundary and the town's ring road. Outline consent was also secured for employment land and a care home.

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 maintained an open dialogue 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.