1,000s fight to save city’s green spaces from council housing plan

Councillor says it could take two weeks to go through the consulation responses

- 

THOUSANDS of residents have lodged objections to the city’s controversial planning blueprint.

Over the last six weeks Stoke-on-Trent City Council has been holding a public consultation on its local plan, which, once adopted, will guide all development in the city up to 2040.

The draft local plan includes site allocations for 18,528 homes, with more than half of these assigned to locations within the Green Belt. These have been particularly controversial for many residents - four e-petitions on the council website opposing the inclusion of particular Green Belt and greenfield sites have attracted 4,079 names between them.

The council has also received thousands of letters and consultation responses from residents raising concerns over the loss of green spaces, the impact on local roads and services, and the need to develop brownfield sites first. With the initial ‘regulation 18’ consultation on the draft plan now complete, the city council says that these responses will inform the next version of the plan, which will be subject to a further round of consultation in the spring.

It has already been a bruising process for the council's ruling Labour group, which has been subjected to often intense criticism at public meetings across the city. Former Labour councillor Dave Mountford defected to the new Potteries Party, partly due to the council’s proposals to build 800 homes on fields in Packmoor, within his ward.

Councillor Chris Robinson, cabinet member for housing and planning, pictured, said that some sites could be dropped from the plan following the consultation. But he insisted that there is a need to build more houses in Stoke-on-Trent - the city has been set a housebuilding target by the government of 948 homes a year.