45 new homes for our village is just 'a joke' (From Worcester News)
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45 new homes for our village is just 'a joke'
8:20pm Wednesday 12th September 2012 in News By Tom Edwards
ANGRY residents in Powick are protesting over what they call “outrageous” proposals for 45 new homes.
A residents group called Protest Powick Greenfield (PPG) is up in arms over suggestions the land off Hospital Lane could be developed.
Residents say Powick’s growth has outstripped any similar-sized village in Worcestershire over the last 15 years, and that “enough is enough”.
Developers Bovis Homes wants to build 45 new properties on the site, with 18 of them affordable homes.
A planning application is expected to be submitted to Malvern Hills District Council imminently, and a consultation event was held last week so the company could get opinion.
Cathryn Throup, of PPG, said: “There is no evidence Powick needs or should be expected to take more housing.
“Development of the proposed site would destroy forever one of the best gateway views of the Malvern Hills.”
The group also said it was “incensed” by the South Worcestershire Development Plan (SWDP), a blueprint which earmarks land for 23,000 new homes by 2030.
The PPG has labelled the consultation “a joke” by saying more time was needed for people to get involved, and that it was encouraging speculative planning applications.
In the SWDP Powick is expected to grow by 43 properties, with land on two different sites earmarked for development.
Bovis Homes wants to build 45 properties on just one site, with critics saying the firm is trying to get in quickly before the SWDP is formally agreed next year.
District councillor Tom Wells said: “In the last 15 years we’ve seen 220 homes go up around the old hospital site, and around 30 other dwellings constructed elsewhere in the village.
“Whilst growing at a rate far beyond other villages, we’ve lost our post office, butchers and convenience store.”
Councillor Marc Bayliss, who chairs a panel which developed the SWDP, said: “The latest consultation was six weeks, we’ve also ran a range of public events, and residents are still able to write in or e-mail to have their say.”
A spokesman for Green Planning Solutions, on behalf of Bovis Homes, said: “We are at the initial stages with this and are still going through the feedback.
“We are still welcoming comments.”
To have your say on the Powick plans, e-mail applications@ gpsllp.co.uk.
Comments(2)
Andy-Apache
says...
10:36am Mon 17 Sep 12
Once again it seems developers are allowed a foot in the door by spouting nonsense about desperate need for housing when many of the new developments already in existence remain half empty, or building is slowed due to lack of demand.
The amount of people in the area isn't increasing at the rate housing is increasing? So where are these desperate people hiding? And where are the business parks which will provide employment for these desperate people?
I'm sorry, but it really does stink of a cynical way of boosting the building trade, lining developers pockets, and providing false 'growth' figures in a fairly stagnant economy, whilst continuing to erode the green space Malvern is rightly famed for.
Good luck with your fight, residents of Powick!
More Tea Vicar says...
10:16am Thu 13 Sep 12
No one seems to want it, yet the Tories carry on anyway.
Can these people at least have the decency and honesty to explain the 'need'?
And can we have a genuine vote on it, not this farce of a 'consultation', which always seems to result in planning officers colluding with builders to inflict unwanted housing on the unwilling public?