Welcome to East Wichel
East Wichel, built on the site of Westlecott Farm, is the first part of the Wichelstowe housing development to the south of Swindon. When complete East Wichel will have over 800 houses and flats plus a few shops and offices and a pub.
By March 2011, over 350 homes were occupied and a planning application had been submitted for the local shopping area. Marston Taverns submitted a planning application for a pub-restaurant in June.
A feature of the development is that restrictions — the ‘Wichelstowe Design Code’ — imposed by the planning authority require most houses to have a different external appearance: no more than two houses in a row look identical.
The restrictions also require most houses to be behind a small railed front garden, whilst each parcel of housing must contain some larger houses, some cottage-style houses, and a barn-style apartment building.
A couple of other restrictions are that external TV aerials and satellite dishes are not permitted — so the whole estate is linked by fibre-optic cable — and once the roads are adopted by the council street parking will be forbidden in all but a few places.