Council to fight homes plan (From Tewkesbury Admag)

Council to fight homes plan

7:13am Wednesday 6th February 2008 in News By Peggy Clatworthy

Tewkesbury Borough Councillors have vowed to continue to fight plans for 450 homes near Bishop's Cleeve.

They says that they will continue their opposition to an application by Wimpy to build 450 houses on the Homelands site, despite a just published Regional Spatial Strategy that identifies a shortfall of land for 2563 houses in the borough over the next five years and that the borough must find room for 1000 more houses to the north of Bishop's Cleeve by 2026.

However councillors agreed at a planning meeting this week to change the grounds on which they are fighting the application.

They will no longer argue that the site lies outside the defined residential area, and is an intrusion into the open countryside, including some of the best agricultural land.

Instead they will argue that it has not been demonstrated that it will not exacerbate current flooding problems, it does not provide community infra structure and their there is no provision for social housing or improved public transport.

There will be public inquiry into the matter in March this year.

On Saturday around 400 Bishop's Cleeve residents gathered in the Parish Hall to protest at the plans.