A HOUSING development which would “blight” Dursley could be stopped after a local woman offered to buy the land.

Sarah Naish has offered to buy Dursley’s green escarpment at the foot of Stinchcome Hill from developer Mark Snook Planning in order to preserve the land for the community.

Her offer came as a response to an application to Stroud District Council (SDC) from the developer for outline planning permission for 27 homes on the land off Hardings Drive.

This is the first formal application for the escarpment by Mark Snook Planning – previously a statement of intent to build 69 houses was sent to residents in the area before being withdrawn.

After the application was first published by SDC in early February, a large number of residents objected, saying the development would ruin the beauty of the area, and that there would be problems with access as well as ecological issues.

In her letter to SDC, Ms Naish wrote: “This proposed development will blight one of the last green spaces visible from Dursley town centre.

“Residents are working hard to make Dursley an attractive town with tourist appeal. No other town in the Cotswolds builds so far up the escarpment.

“Brown site development remains underused with the current Listers site already being cleared.

“Residents have had enough of the vandalising of this once beautiful Cotswold Town.

“If the council and proposed developer agrees, I will buy the land and dedicate it in perpetuity to the people of Dursley.”

Ms Naish – who is from Dursley but currently lives in Stroud – added: “If it’s just a case of people being greedy and not wanting to be out of pocket then I would buy it. It’s caused so much hassle and received such strength of objection that, if it were me, it would make me want to sell it to someone for the price I originally paid and get it off my hands.

“I work for a property development company and we would never buy that sort of space to build on.”

When the statement of intent was delivered in 2013 residents formed a group called Defend Dursley’s Green Escarpment to protest.

It is still going strong and held an ‘extraordinary residents meeting” in Dursley’s Methodist Church Rooms yesterday evening.

DDGE co-founder Phil Maynard said he was very interested in Ms Naish’s proposal.