STROUD District Council has voted to proceed with its Local Plan at a meeting tonight, Tuesday.

The council agreed to ask the planning inspector to reconvene the examination of the plan after voting to add an additional 1,700 houses to the plan.

The new housing figure for the district 11,200 includes 150 homes in the Stroud Valleys and 1,350 homes west of Stonehouse.

Councillors had a heated debate about the additional homes west of Stonehouse, with members who represent the Stonehouse ward claiming they felt ‘trapped between a rock and a hard place’.

Cllr Ken Stephens, who represents the Eastington ward where the new development will be built, voted against the recommendations, and said he was proud his children would be able to say he had no part in the decision to go ahead with the development.

He left the meeting early after casting his vote.

The Local Plan sets out the strategy for new housing, employment and community development within the district until 2031.

Cllr Keith Pearson (Con, Upton St Leonard) said that the council had hired experts to advise them on complicated planning issues and at some point members had to ‘trust what they were being told’ and realise no one was trying t ‘pull the wool over their eyes’.

The draft plan has come up against opposition from members of the public who think the housing numbers are too high.

After the meeting a spokesman for the campaign group Don’t Strangle Stroud said it was a ‘sad day for Stonehouse’.

“I think in many ways the councillors were frightened into making a decision,” he said.