Housing ‘will kill village’ (From Worcester News)

Housing ‘will kill village’

4:40pm Thursday 13th September 2012 in Worcester By Tarik Al Rasheed

A MAJOR housing blueprint set to shape South Worcestershire’s future will sound the death knell for the one of the county’s largest villages, say concerned councillors.

Parish councillors at Kempsey, near Worcester, will this week issue a stinging response to the South Worcestershire Development Plan , a document devised to map out where growth should occur over the next 20 years.

Members fear that a development of 2,450 homes at Broomhall and Norton, just north of Kempsey, will become “dominant”.

The draft response – which councillors have approved subject to any minor amendments being made before tomorrow’s submission deadline – continues: “Such a plan, as currently conceived, will remove any hope of retaining our independence and character and condemn us to be a satellite of the Broomhall extension and ultimate absorption by Worcester.”

The council says reserve sites at Upper and Middle Battenhall Farms should be used to take the bulk of the Broomhall allocation, and that any development that is necessary off Broomhall Way does not intrude into the “significant gap” south of Taylor’s Lane.

It also wants this gap re-designated as green belt, “allowing Kempsey to plan its own future without fear of absorption by an ever-expanding city”.

West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin says green spaces between Worcester and villages such as Kempsey, Hallow, Rushwick and Lower Broadheath are highly valued by residents and should be specially designated for protection.