A COUNCILLOR says he hopes to see an end to “urban sprawl” across Lichfield and Burntwood.
Lichfield District Council’s new Local Plan is being developed which will explore where development can take place over the next 20 years.
A call for sites has already been made as part of the drafting of the document, with around 140 potential locations identified.
But a meeting of the council’s cabinet saw confirmation that the local authority would be seeking to meet the bulk of long term housing need through the creation of a new settlement within the district.
The response from developers to the call for potential locations for a major new residential area include a 3,000 home site at Packington and 1,500 properties on the Whitemoor plot in Alrewas.
Other areas where developers are keen to build should the Local Plan allocate sites for residential use, include 5,000 properties off the A38 at Brookhay, 2,500 homes near Pipe Hill, 1,400 properties in Shenstone and 1,000 homes off Hospital Road in Burntwood.
Cllr Alex Farrell, cabinet member for housing and the Local Plan, said he was keen for a fresh approach to meeting the need for new homes, but recognised there may need to be some short term solutions:
“I am strongly behind the option of a new settlement. However, they take a while to come on stream as there’s a lot more involved when you’re looking at a few thousand houses somewhere.
“You could be looking at five, ten or more years until a new settlement comes to be and that falls outside the Local Plan term.
“It’s 100% our intention to go for new settlement, but while that is going on we still need to be conscious that we might be pressured into more housing and higher housing targets than we thought because of the new government.
“There could be a lot of pressures on us as a council when we find out our potential housing numbers, meaning that we might have to infill with other housing approaches.
“But I’m keen that isn’t urban sprawl and that it’s in the right areas with the right housing and is right for communities.”
The debate came ahead of a six-week consultation launching at the end of October which will seek views from local residents.
Cllr Farrell said that efforts to get feedback from across the community would see a broad approach taken.
“The report [to the cabinet meeting] is a chunky document which is asking the most important people – the residents of the district – what they want to see in an ideal world as part of their new Local Plan, given the backdrop of our call for sites which saw landowners coming forward with where they’d like to develop.
“It sets out the issues and options and goes into how we’ll consult, including speaking to parish councillors and going out to places that might not be reached, such as schools, community centres, shops, restaurants or pubs – anywhere we can speak to people about what they want for their local area.
“But more important than consulting is that feedback is listened to an actioned if need be.
“In previous consultations we could have been at fault for not listening. As part of the process we are meant to hear from the community.
“I’d like plan to be community-led so we can work out what they want. We can’t always get what we want, but we’d like to do our best to align to community need.
“It needs to be infrastructure first so we need to make sure communities are well connected with things like roads, doctors, dentists and schools.”
