Residents to get say on Plan (From Gazette Series)

Residents to get say on Plan

RESIDENTS will soon be able to have their say on the Stroud District Local Plan.

Six months after a government inspector made his recommendations to the district council, members almost unanimously agreed to drop several controversial sites from the report and to send it out for public consultation.

One of the sites removed from the document, which provides a planning blueprint for the next ten years, was Berkeley, where 300 new homes had been proposed on land opposite the town's historic castle.

The council believe they are safe to remove the sites after council officers analysed the latest housing figures and agreed that the number of homes to be built before 2011 exceed the government target of 9,400 by almost 700.

At Thursday's meeting of the full council, Cllr Barbara Tait (Cons, Painswick), cabinet member for planning said: "This gives us the opportunity to reject some of the inspector's recommendations while leaving a workable surplus."

Cllr John Marjoram (Green, Trinity) said: "Of course everybody realises that Berkeley should not be perceived as a major development area."

He also praised residents who had fiercely opposed the recommendations. "I would like to thank all the groups of people who really saw the folly of the proposals from the inspector," he said.

It is expected the modified plan will go out for public consultation in the middle of June, when interested parties will be given six weeks to make their observations. Comments will then be considered by councillors who have the option of adopting the plan, deciding on further modifications or calling for a second local plan enquiry.

Although the 300 Berkeley homes have been removed, a controversial site in Dursley remains in the plan. The inspector recommended that 55 houses were built at the former infants school at Union Street.

Cllr Brian Marsh (Dursley, Lib Dem) said: "Dursley is going to have 700 homes built in the very near future and can't take any more. I think the county council is making a very big mistake."

Cllr Tait said: "We have to have extremely good reasons for withdrawing a site. If you wish to make comments about that I recommend you do that during the consultation period."