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# Councillors concerned over impact of back garden housing developments in Burntwood
- URL: https://lichfieldlive.co.uk/councillors-concerned-over-impact-of-back-garden-housing-developments-in-burntwood/
- Published: 2021-09-07T09:56:32.000Z
- Updated: 2021-09-07T09:56:40.000Z
- Description: Councillors say they are concerned about the impact back garden housing developments in Burntwood.
- Author: Lichfield Live
- Tags: Burntwood, Politics, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-07-22 19:15, News

Councillors say they are concerned about the impact back garden housing developments in Burntwood.

![House building](https://lichfieldlive.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/housing-2.jpg)

The comments came at a meeting of Lichfield District Council’s planning committee last night (6th September).

Members were debating plans to allow a bungalow to be built in the back garden of 164 Cannock Road.

![Diane Evans](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e3/90/e390c3da-0866-4d2a-8ffe-ca4999d7ce1c/content/images/lichfieldlive-co-uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/17759266743_fab708e073_z.jpg)

Diane Evans

Cllr Diane Evans, Labour member for Boney Hay and Central ward, said the continued arrival of such developments risked having a “detrimental” effect on the town.

> “We are hearing application after application for backland development in Burntwood.  
>  
> “I am concerned about the amount that is taking place – the density is going to have a detrimental effect on neighbours.  
>  
> “We really need to ensure that we are following the council’s policy on sustainable development.”  
>  
> Cllr Diane Evans, Lichfield District Council

The proposal for the new bungalow was passed by a 7-2 vote, but fellow ward representative, Cllr Rob Birch, said he was worried about the long term impact of allowing homes to be built in back gardens across Burntwood.

> “If we look at concerns around changing the character of an area, we have a number of houses with large back gardens built in the 1900s.  
>  
> “It will change the character of an area if we allow back garden development – over a period of time it becomes accumulative and it is therefore against the council’s housing sustainability policies.  
>  
> “Over time as the neighbours do it and the next neighbours do it, it changes the character of the area by definition.”  
>  
> Cllr Rob Birch, Lichfield District Council

## “People don’t garden as much as they used to”

![Jamie Checkland](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e3/90/e390c3da-0866-4d2a-8ffe-ca4999d7ce1c/content/images/lichfieldlive-co-uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/jamiechecklandhead.jpg)

Jamie Checkland

But Cllr Jamie Checkland, Conservative representative for Leomansley, said the use of gardens for development needed to be seen in the current context of housing projects.

> “In times gone by gardens were very spacious. People don’t garden as much as they used to.  
>  
> “If we were designing a site and new development now, these gardens \[at properties along Cannock Road\] would all be bigger than any garden you get.  
>  
> “The whole principle of backland development is actually making what is now considered to be an effective use of land.”  
>  
> Cllr Jamie Checkland, Lichfield District Council