CAMPAIGNERS fighting plans for hundreds of new homes in Burntwood have drawn up plans for a new nature reserve.
Members of the Burntwood Action Group (BAG) says the business plan and landowner viability assessment for 56.6 acres "completely dismantles the commercial justification" for the proposed development at Coulter Lane.
Bloor Homes is hoping to gain planning permission for 250 homes at the site.
But BAG says its proposals for the Francis Barber Heritage and Nature Reserve demonstrated that the site could generate economic value without resorting to urban sprawl.
The organisation's analysis said that transitioning the site into the statutory green economy would deliver 50 certified Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) Units. At current market rates it could generate £1.5million.
A spokesperson for BAG said:
"Speculative developers rely on the myth that refusing housing leaves a landowner with a financially sterile asset.
"We have empirically proven that the Francis Barber Heritage and Nature Reserve outperforms the developer's high-risk option agreements, delivering guaranteed, tax-optimised capital while protecting our Green Belt and honouring Britain's first Black schoolmaster, Francis Barber, who taught on this exact soil in 1799."
The launch of the nature reserve plan follows a move by BAG to test Lichfield District Council's decision to reject efforts to designate the site as an official Asset of Community Value (ACV).
The local authority ruled that because the Master Business Plan responsibly restricts unmanaged public foot-traffic across the interior to protect ground-nesting birds, the community use is merely "ancillary" to agriculture.
BAG's spokesperson added:
"The council has handed us a lethal planning contradiction,
"They rejected the ACV by formally acknowledging that the site's interior must be safeguarded from unmanaged access to protect sensitive ecology.
"Yet, the planning directorate is attempting to wave through 250 houses, domestic pets, and streetlights onto those exact same habitats.
"Under the National Planning Policy Framework, this hypocrisy makes an approval legally precarious."
Lichfield District Council's planning committee is due to decide on the Bloor Homes proposals for the Coulter Lane site on 20th July. A report by officers has recommended approval.
