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.