The planning application aimed at imposing an unwanted 92-unit housing estate on Barnt Green, has more than touched the area’s collective nerve, it seems.
But is there light at the end of that particular tunnel and an escape route for the application’s opponents? I refer to the reported suggestion from Barnt Green Parish Council’s consultants Define that Bromsgrove District Council seriously consider taking positive steps to re-classify this white land site as Green Belt.
By the time your readers are receiving their copies of The Village magazine for flaming June, Bromsgrove’s new district council will be in situ and looking for something juicy to cut its teeth on.
What better way to demonstrate their gratitude to those who have just put them back in office, than to make this re-classification its top priority?
It is clear that if this application were put to a local referendum (and the law allows for this) it would be rejected simply because it is against the will of the overwhelming majority of constituents. Councils exist to enact the will of their electorate, not to run their district or borough as they personally think fit.
Bromsgrove could follow up this re-classification by instructing their Planning Department to rewrite the Core Strategy to include reducing any net increase in Bromsgrove’s housing inventory to zero, or single unit applications only.
The statement “we have cut a possible 7,000 units in Bromsgrove, down to 4,000“ is no comfort at all to residents who would prefer a re-introduction of the recently expired moratorium.
Peter McHugh, Alvechurch Residents Group.