Plans have been drawn up to build seven new homes on land in Hopwas.
Developers have earmarked the 1.5 acre site at Nursery Lane for housing.
A planning statement said the land had previously been used as a nursery, but was now “tired and redundant”.
“While it is acknowledged that the site site sits within the greenbelt, it must also be accepted that the plot is actually a brownfield site having been a working nursery since the 1930s.
“Up until recently, the site has long been used for a working nursery that used cover land both north and south of the application site.
“Over the course proceeding years the demand for the nursery declined and therefore much of its coverage diminished. Subsequently parcels of land were sold off and redeveloped, which is evident with the cul-de-sac directly opposite.
“It can be readily seen how the plot has fallen into disrepair and become an eyesore within the village. Many of the mature trees fronting the road are in need of pruning and the site itself is in urgent need of attention.
“There still a few remnants of outbuildings and poly tunnels remaining on site which have fallen into disrepair and are in need of urgent attention to prevent them becoming spots for anti-social behaviour or create a risk of trespasser injury.”
Planning statement
The new proposals would see a range of three to five bedroom properties built.
“It is envisaged that the new additions could be the catalyst for the rejuvenation of the slightly tired, outdated and underused spaces within the Village, into a new small and intimate set of homes that will bring life and activity to the site.
“This is in turn will reconnect the brownfield site back into the village as a positive addition, providing a handful of exemplar family homes.”
Planning statement
Full details of the proposals are available on the Lichfield District Council planning website.
I’m not saying it applies here, but one way to try and persuade councillors (not, in my experience, professional planning officers) is to leave your parcel of land to become an eyesore so that the applicant can say: “We need to tidy it up [for some reason only new houses can do this] or it could become a site for travellers or ‘soon become a shelter for anti-social gatherings and vandalism’”.
This has been argued by some applicants and their agents whose applications did not quite, and sometimes nowhere near, comply with the agreed Local or Neighbourhood Plan for as long as I have been a councillor.
We have managed to defend the green belt around Burntwood – so far – but any exception that is not an “exception” as defined under National Planning Policy is a Trojan horse and good luck trying justify your rejection of a similar application, or the next, or…
Before the usual NIMBY brigades on here start piping up with their typical ‘OMG, not more new housing developments’ gripes, I have to say that I quite like the look of this proposed new development (as seen from the artist’s impression).
If it resembled some soulless 60s-style ‘concrete jungle’-type estate, which would have looked vastly out of kilter with the picturesque village of Hopwas (I live just over the border in north Tamworth), I might have had a very different opinion. BTW, no offence intended to those who do reside in such aforementioned ‘concrete jungle’-type estates typical of the 60s era, before I get shot down in flames and accused of being a non-PC, hoity-toity snob!
Return it to farm land and the Green Belt. Oh! I forgot, building land is massively more expensive than farm land. They wouldn’t want to miss out on that windfall would they?