City Council Objects to Development in Green Belt South of Lichfield
Published: 09 January 2009
Lichfield City Council has responded to the District Council's
consultation on the 'Preferred Options' for future development of
Lichfield which will form part of the forthcoming Local Development
Framework.
In its response the City Council registers its "strong disagreement" to
the housing proposals for Lichfield which would allocate more than 4,000
additional dwellings to the City in the period 2006-2026. It points
out that there has already been substantial residential growth in the
City in the period up to 2006, and that the sites proposed for future
growth to the south of Lichfield are almost entirely on green belt land
where development should not be permitted. It adds that these sites are
on rising ground and so would be extremely prominent in the foreground
of historic views into and out of the City, and that they would also be
outside the line of the proposed southern bypass - turning what should
be a bypass into an "estate feeder road".
The City Council's response advocates a new settlement at Fradley, which
it believes would be "a sustainable, viable and preferable alternative
to substantial development in the green belt around Lichfield City."
The Council also proposes that there should be less emphasis on
residential development in the City and greater emphasis on increased
employment opportunities - especially office type developments - so that
fewer residents have to out-commute for work.
The full text of the City Council's Response can be downloaded here.
The "Preferred Options" consultation document on which the City Council is responding can also be found by clicking the link.