A campaign group has been urged to apologise over comments made at a public meeting in Burntwood.
The event was held over plans to move farmland in the town from the Green Belt.
Burntwood Action Group said the meeting had shown the levels of “outrage” from local residents at the proposals.
But Cllr Sue Woodward, leader of Burntwood Town Council, says suggestions of improper behaviour by elected members put forward at the event should lead to an apology from the group.
Cllr Woodward said:
“I didn’t see ‘outrage’ at the meeting. In fact, most people were considered, interested and respectful.
“However, I expressed my own outrage at the innuendo that councillors were somehow in the pockets of developers and the disgraceful ‘brown envelopes’ comment by one BAG Committee member which has yet to be refuted.
“I told the meeting that Cllr Pullen and Cllr Eadie [leader and deputy leader of Lichfield District Council] are honourable men – they are not of the same party as me, by the way -and that it is important to work with councillors rather than make such jibes.
“I hope Burntwood Action Group will refute this and apologise.”
Cllr Sue Woodward, Burntwood Town Council
“We need to work together as a town”
The focus of the meeting related to an area of land bordered by Coulter Lane, Nether Lane, Rugeley Road and Church Road.
Cllr Woodward said it was important that a bigger picture of the threat of over-development was not ignored.
“We need to work together as a town to protect the whole of our Green Belt, not just one section of it, and not simply say ‘keep our part of the town as it is and put all the houses at the other end of the town’.
“I completely agree that we need services rather than ever more houses. That’s why I welcome the proposal by Lichfield District Council to look at the possibility of a new settlement in the district and brownfield sites in the rural areas rather than here in Burntwood.
“It’s why we need to get our Neighbourhood Plan in place after years of delay.”
Cllr Sue Woodward, Burntwood Town Council
