WYCHAVON councillors have vowed to fight any attempt to remove Hartlebury from the district.

Wyre Forest District councillors have approved plans to ask the Local Government Boundary Commission to consider the case for including Hartlebury, which currently falls under Wychavon, in the district of Wyre Forest.

The move had been prompted by the Boundary Commission’s proposal to include Hartlebury into the Wyre Forest Parliamentary Constituency.

At the Wyre Forest meeting, held last Wednesday, (September 28), Liberal Democrat group leader Fran Oborski read out a letter from Wychavon District Council leader Linda Robinson, saying she felt “aggrieved” and “disappointed” that there had been no debate or discussion with them about the proposal prior to the committee meeting papers being released last month.

Cllr Oborski said: “This is being perceived as a land grab and appears to be grossly discourteous to our colleagues in Wychavon and to the people and parish of Hartlebury.”

But Wyre Forest leader, Councillor Marcus Hart, responded they were just asking the commission to look at their proposal to “see if it had any legs”, and denied it was about land grabbing.

"It is a sensible proposal that merits consideration," Cllr Hart added.

At Wychavon's latest council meeting, held on the same evening as Wyre Forest's, councillors unanimously backed a motion expressing surprise at the fact Wyre Forest had not consulted with them before proposing the idea.

They also unanimously voted to oppose the plan.

Cllr Robinson told Wychavon councillors she was "extremely disappointed" the recommendation was made without any prior discussion with the Wychavon authority, or with Hartlebury residents.

"The justification for such a move is weak and it would be Hartlebury residents who would pay the price, as under Wyre Forest District Council the average band D council tax bill would rise by almost £88," the Wychavon leader said.

“We already have a situation where parts of Wychavon are in different parliamentary constituencies and the system functions perfectly well."

Hartlebury councillor Nigel Dowty, said: “Moving Hartlebury residents across an invisible local authority boundary will not benefit them, but will result in them paying more in council tax for, what I believe, would be a poorer standard of service."

Hartlebury Parish councillors also criticised a lack of consultation with them.

Sheridan Tranter, parish council chairman, said: “There has been no dialogue with us. This is regrettable and difficult to understand.

“We’re concerned by this as it has come completely out of nowhere.

"We would expect there to be a full and proper consultation with our residents, and their views taken note of, before this proposal is taken any further.”