Our View of the WFDC Local Plan

24 April 2022

Wyre Forest District Council’s Local Plan – which sets the local planning policies for our area up to 2036 – is reaching its final stage. This has been developed over 6 years by both Tory and Progressive Alliance administrations, working with the Planning Department and having had several consultations with the public – and following the strict processes and formula set down in government rules.

At all stages of consultation this party and many of our members contributed many helpful suggestions and criticisms in order to improve the Plan, but, like many residents, we find we are left with a mixture of positives and negatives.

Eco Villages

Positives in this Plan include:

A requirement for biodiversity net gain,
Strengthening environmental sustainability.
Improvements in building design requirements, such as (insulation?), EV charging points and solar panels.
Enshrining a Green Advisory Panel into a policy framework that will secure critical measures within approved developments.
Creation of the Burlish Country Park on the former site of Wyre Forest Golf Course.
Protections for the Stour valley.
25% of new housing in the plan will be required to be affordable housing.
The Plan has gone through a statutory process where an independent Planning Inspector has found the Plan to be sound and legally compliant.

Negatives

To meet the housing number required by the government formula of almost 6,000 new houses by 2036 (276 per year), approximately half are allocated to the available brownfield sites. Unfortunately, to find space for the remainder, an allocation for about 3,600 homes has been made on land currently designated Green Belt. The major areas affected are at Lea Castle and adjacent to Offmore & Comberton, although there are other smaller sites identified all around our District.
Unfortunately, some landowners do not make their derelict or vacant sites available for redevelopment – for example, the timber yard on Park Lane, Kidderminster – and the Council does not have the funds to make compulsory purchases and fight legal battles, so these sites are not included in the Plan.
Several sites have been allocated to business, retail or mixed-use – such as the former Glades site, designated for retail and entertainment (including a multiplex cinema) – which could have been better off becoming town-centre housing.
The additional housing allocations are on the fringes of our 3 towns form urban sprawl, which is a failed strategy that leads to increased car use (creating more traffic) and social isolation.
The building on Green Belt and other fields will mean a loss or degradation of some rich environmental areas and of good agricultural land. WFDC are keen to point out that only 2.1% of Green Belt is being lost, however.
The Plan lacks a target to reach net zero carbon.

At some stage in the next couple of years, the government has promised that they will be “reforming” the planning system. Every now and then, leading Tory ministers talk of protecting the Green Belt but nothing ever seems to materialise – just further missed opportunities from the party of big business.

Conclusions

The Green Party works to improve people’s lives and protect green spaces and wildlife at every turn.
The national planning system is not fit for purpose:

Unfair housing numbers are imposed on councils without due regard to local conditions and population growth;
When a Plan is adopted, homebuilding companies can choose to develop on the cheapest land, which will be fields suitable for their identikit estates – brownfield sites are usually more complicated and need a customised approach.
The Conservative Party receives a lot of support from the big homebuilding companies

While we don’t agree with all parts of the Plan we recognise that the greater risk to our local environment and community is not adopting a local plan at all. Unfortunately, at this stage WFDC can only decide to approve or not approve it.
Without a Local Plan, Wyre Forest would be subject to some serious implications:

Without an allocation for a five-year supply of housing, as stipulated by the Government, the whole district will be open to attack from rogue developers and speculative applications.
A Local Plan could be imposed on us, with a higher housing requirement.
The improvements in planning regulations which are in this proposed Plan, such as the affordable housing requirement, improved biodiversity and developers contributions to infrastructure, will be lost.
Indications from government are that any future housing formula would actually impose higher housing numbers on the Midlands and the North.

Adopting the local plan will allow push for higher standards of housing, for example renewable energy, more affordable housing, improved walking and cycling links.

All new developments must show biodiversity net gain, this is something the Green party will be looking into/following up.

The most effective time to object/influence the plans for individual developments is when the planning applications are submitted, the local plan cannot be changed at this stage. Wyre Forest green party is happy to support residents with this.

If there is a delay in adopting the Local Plan, there is a chance that the government quotas for numbers of houses will actually increase and we will have to find more land for housing. The minister for “Housing and Communities”, Michael Gove, said recently that the promised new Planning Bill, containing promised fundamental reforms, had been scrapped. It is said that the government will instead “tidy up the planning system” via “Levelling Up” legislation – and would “result in more development in the north of England and the Midlands and fewer new homes in Tory shire constituencies” (The Times, 5th November 2021).

The Green Party nationally is for a national, regional and local planning policy with a "vision that enables all people to realise their potential and improve their quality of life in ways which simultaneously protect and enhance the Earth’s life support systems and other species’ habitats. We strongly support the provision of green belts and other zonings to contain urban sprawl, to maintain the separation of settlements, to protect prime agricultural land around settlements, and to encourage urban regeneration & higher density towns and cities." Read it all here:

GP Policy: