Wednesday 1 May 2013

Fate of Slad Valley, Rodborough Fields and other green sites depends on High Court legal wrangle


The fate of Slad Valley and Rodborough Fields and other green sites threatened with housing could depend on a planning wrangle in Cam.

Developer Gladman has confirmed it will appeal against Stroud District Council's decision last week to refuse it permission to build 140 homes on Baxter's Field in the Slad Valley.
The controversial application had attracted 1,500 objections from residents and councillors rejected it unanimously.

Now Martin Twigg, project manager at Gladman, confirmed: "We will be pursing the matter to appeal."



But the council's head of planning Phil Skill has warned that the ongoing legal wrangle over 70 houses in Cam could determine the fate of green fields across the district.
The council has pursued a judicial review of a planning inspector's decision to allow Hallam Land Management to build the homes in Cam. It says the inspector used out-dated housing figures in his decision.

"But if the High Court agrees with the inspector the chances of winning the Baxter's Field appeal are in serious doubt," said Mr Skill.

The High Court is expected to decide on Cam in October.

"This could affect many other applications, including Rodborough Fields and the Leonard Stanley planning application which is about to go in," added Mr Skill.
He said the council had already found sites for 6,000 homes across the district but developers were not building on them because of the economic situation.

Andy Dickinson of Slad Valley Action Group said "We are worried about the appeal because of the Government's strong pressure to build new houses at all cost. It's vital a planning inspector does not foist this on us."


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