ON behalf of the Astwood Bank Against Incinerator Group (ABAI), I would like to thank everybody who has voiced or written in support of our campaign for the removal of the industrial-sized animal waste incinerator from its site at Popes Lane.

We anticipate the incinerator plant to move off site and out of Astwood Bank sometime in January or February.

Once we have seen that happen, ABAI will disband.

Although I am proud ABAI can put a tick in the "objective achieved" box, the sad legacy of the incinerator saga is that it has resulted in yet another inappropriate housing development in the local community.

ABAI has deliberately refrained from voicing a group protest at the plans for this development. Our raison d'etre was to get rid of the incinerator and we did not feel we were in a position to make a statement on behalf of the village on another issue.

It is clear, however, from speaking to a large number of people in the village and around, that they are not happy with the proposals for development but did not raise a formal objection, considering houses to be very much the "lesser of the two evils" to the incinerator.

The current proposal is not the first for houses on the Popes Lane site. Previous proposals have been strongly resisted when raised at Neighbourhood Group meetings.

At the end of the day, the planning department of Redditch Council may have felt it had very little alternative to granting the requisite permission.

However, it is strongly felt by ABAI the same department could have done an awful lot more to deal with and support the legal and factual arguments presented by ABAI which may well have led to it not being placed in the dilemma it faced of having to allow one development to get rid of another.

Clearly, the council departed wholesale from its own county and district local plans to approve the development.

Redditch and Astwood Bank are surrounded by some beautiful countryside which has the right to be protected by vigorous enforcement of green belt polices.

I would urge our council to take a long hard look at its policies and procedures and do everything within its power to prevent future inappropriate development on our green belt land and to protect our open spaces - and that includes the bulldozing of trees along Rough Hill Drive.

It is the residents who matter, not the pockets of entrepreneurs.

David Browne

ABAI