A CALL from a property firm for local residents to express their views on plans for a developer to build 63 homes on their doorstep has been slammed as ‘window dressing’ by a top county councillor.
Coun Robin Lunn (Lab, Redditch North) said: “What the the developer has done is written to residents asking for their views before they submit a planning application.
“If they genuinely intend to take into account those views then you don’t have to be a genius to know that the residents will object to the plans.”
The letter comes from property consultancy Harris Lamb on behalf of Redrow Homes and concerns plans to build 63 homes on land off Foxlydiate Lane – called ‘Foxlydiate Road’ by Harris Lamb – in Webheath.
It’s part of the tranche of 2,800 new homes earmarked for a site stretching from Webheath between Gypsy Land and the Bromsgrove Highway.
Local resident Alan Adamson suggested the letter could even be a ploy by the developers.
This was the development which the Webheath Action Group bitterly opposed over many years and which subsequently was found to be possibly surplus to requirements due to a re-calculation of housing need by the Office of National Statistics.
However by that time it was too late and the planning inspector had given the project the go ahead.
“They know from past form that they are going to get lots of objections it could possibly be a tactic to learn people’s objections so they are well prepared when the planning application goes in,” he said.
“There is a huge point about access and pulling out into Foxlydiate Lane from the development, plus of course all the construction traffic,” said Coun Lunn.
“We are also in danger of putting more houses in an area which is in danger of losing its sole centre for socialising – the Foxlydiate pub which is facing closure.”
