Homes plan outrage (From Stroud News and Journal)

Homes plan outrage

THE district council is caught between a rock and a hard place with Government pressure forcing it to consider development on greenfield sites in the AONB.

This was the message Ebley Mill's planning strategy manager Pete Gilbert tried to get across when he walked into the lion's den on Monday night to face the dozens of angry residents who flocked to an emergency meeting called by Stroud Town Council.

Mr Gilbert gave a thorough explanation of the Local Plan, its lengthy history and why the district now had to find new sites for 500 houses it was not expecting.

But it was the future of three key sites, Grange Fields, Wades Farm and Kilminster Farm that the public was anxious to hear about.

The planning officer outlined the Government inspector's arguments for each of the three sites, which boiled down to the fact they were reasonably close to the centre of town and would not have too awful a visual impact compared with the other options.

But many of the residents were furious at the idea that 105 homes could be built on Grange Fields, a site within the protected AONB on the green land opposite Stratford Park and St Rose's School.

"Grange Fields is a beautiful piece of countryside leading into Stroud," said a Lovedays Mead resident.

"One of the reasons people like living in Stroud is it's unique character with fingers of countryside coming into the town. "I remain to be convinced that people have looked hard enough at brownfield sites."

Residents argued that building on these edge-of-town sites would be the thin edge of the wedge and were dubious about the inspector's claims developing an AONB site would not set as precedent for further schemes in the beauty spot.

"Once you start going into an AONB and saying there is no alternative the idea that this won't carry on has to be taken with a pinch of salt," said another member of public.

"Because when the pressure's on they'll do a little bit more, then a little bit more and soon you'll have the whole valley to Painswick swallowed up."

Mr Gilbert said he had some sympathy for the residents' concerns but that the council had been left with little room to manoeuvre, as if it did not adopt the inspector's recommended sites it could put the whole Local Plan in jeopardy, which would mean developers would probably get to build on these sites too, as well as on others.

"Developers would then be pushing at us, submitting planning applications and wanting to see them determined," he said.

"If we turned them down and they took it to appeal the most up to date planning document would be the inspector's report, which does recommend these sites. "It's not something we can leave lightly and just ignore. "The council's caught between a bit of a rock and a hard place."