Plans for 3,097 homes on Green Belt land ‘not viable’

Councillor ‘unable to support’ draft local plan

- Phil Corrigan

A COMMUNITY leader says he cannot support plans to allocate more than 3,000 homes to Green Belt sites in his ward.

City council cabinet member Duncan Walker said he had ‘significant concerns’ over the authority's draft local plan, which will guide all development in the Potteries up to 2040.

The draft plan includes proposals to take 11 ‘broad locations’ out of the Green Belt and allocate 10,499 homes to them.

Two of these sites - Norton Green North and Norton Green South - lie within his Baddeley Green, Milton and Norton ward, on either side of the existing village.

Norton Green South is earmarked for 2,278 homes in the plan, while a further 819 houses are allocated to Norton Green North.

Cabinet members voted to approve the draft plan for public consultation at their meeting this week. But councillor Walker told his colleagues that he could not support the plan in its current form.