A Lib Dem councillor say any plans for housing as part of Lichfield city centre’s redevelopment must be “balanced”.
It comes after Lichfield District Council’s leader said he was keen to see homes aimed at young professionals on the land where Tempest Ford once stood.
The scheme forms part of broader plans for the Birmingham Road Site – much of which has sat empty since the failure of the Friarsgate scheme – which include public open space.
But Cllr Hugh Ashton, Lib Dem representative for Stowe ward, said that greater consideration needed to be given to the plans for housing in the city centre.
“We are desperate to see progress on the Friarsgate site. This has stalled for too long.
However, Cllr Doug Pullen’s statement about the sale of the Ford Tempest land does raise serious concerns and does not reflect our vision for the site.
“He talks about building homes on the site for young professionals and says that the sale of land from the Friarsgate site will be reinvested in other areas.
“The decisions about this site are about the type of community we want in the centre of Lichfield. Our view is that the housing should be mixed with affordable housing for a wide range of people who live in Lichfield.
“We would not be comfortable with an approach where the financial return is maximised by selling land at the Friarsgate site for just open market housing with the developer paying money to the council in Section 106 contributions which would be used to invest in affordable elsewhere in the district.
“There must be a balanced housing mix on THIS site – just like there is on other developments around Lichfield.”
Cllr Hugh Ashton, Lichfield District Council
The development on the former Tempest Ford plot will form part of the wider redevelopment plans after the council opted to pursue an approach of parcelling the land rather than trying to seek a single developer as it had with Friarsgate.
Cllr Pullen said:
“The phasing is a really important part of bringing the site forward. Historically, we attempted to bring the seven acre site forward in one big go and that didn’t work.
“What we have always envisaged in the last few years is that we break that down into much smaller chunks, bring them forward in phases.
“We’re now seeing the fruition of that paying off for us.”
Cllr Doug Pullen, Lichfield District Council
Cllr Ashton said that he was keen to see more detail about the rest of the land before a decision is made on any single area.
“It is very important that before any individual parts of the site are sold off that there must be an overall detailed plan for how the seven acres at the Friarsgate site are to be developed.”
Cllr Hugh Ashton, Lichfield District Council
