PLANS for a contentious housing development at the foot of Stinchcombe Hill in Dursley have moved forward with the submission of a planning application.

The move by Mark Snook Planning to gain outline planning permission for 27 homes on the patch of green land off of Hardings Drive, Dursley, comes in the wake of an application by those objecting the development to turn the area into an official town green.

The action group working to protect the land Defend Dursley’s Green Escarpment have now called an ‘extraordinary residents meeting’ to ensure locals are fully informed of the process and what they must do help prevent development.

The application for outline planning permission for 27 homes was received by Stroud District Council on Saturday, February 3, who subsequently published the information on Wednesday, February 25.

Additionally, access to the site has been sign-posted and gated with barbed wire by the landowner, denying access in areas residents have frequently used in the past.

In response, DDGE has called for an ‘extraordinary residents meeting’ to present local people with all aspects of the anti-development campaign.

Their hope is that by moving quickly they can establish an appropriate response to object to the application before it winds up in front of SDC’s development control committee.

Residents of Dursley affected by the proposed development have until March 12 to supply SDC with their own comments and objections. Objections towards any previous application will not be included.

Phil Maynard, co-founder of DDGE, said: “The overriding failing of the planning application is that the developers have not included any depth of community communication or liaison whatsoever.

“They have omitted the most important consideration of all: that this development would affect the lifestyle and wellbeing of people – the town residents, their families and the whole community.

“This aspect, in my view, is the developers’ Achilles heel and allows us to object, siting this and other omissions with fervour about the obliteration of green field views and loss of open space as the established backdrop for Dursley.”

In an earlier step to defend the area, DDGE applied to make the proposed area of development Dursley’s town green, which, if approved, would prevent any future development at all.

They had a registration authority hearing at Kingshill House on Tuesday, February 3, and were initially expecting to hear back by the end of the month.

Co-founder of the DDGE steering group Keith Andrews said: “I don’t think that we’ll get a report back now until two weeks into March, but it has got to go on in some way or another.”

The extraordinary meeting for residents will be held in Dursley Methodist Church rooms on Wednesday, March 4, at 6.30pm.