Burntwood Action Group

On March the 18th the Environment and Development Oversight and Scrutiny Committee meeting took place. We have already reported on what took place during this meeting, however we now have the format of the meeting available for download. Simply click here to view it or right click and choose “Save link as” or “Save target as” to save it to your computer.

This will help to give you a summary of the meeting and what was decided.

Link – Core Strategy Preferred Options: Consultation Responses

The Burntwood Action Group are a dedicated group of individuals who have given their time and energy to campaigning for local issues. As you’ve seen we’re currently attending council meetings, printing and delivering newsletters, updating the local community and also designing, producing and displaying banners as part of our campaign.

Your kind donations are always welcome and will go towards ongoing and future costs of running our campaign and ensuring that Burntwood is a pleasant, safe, friendly and green place to live.

If you’d like to donate, just use the link on the right. Thank-you.

Last night the Environment and Development Oversight and Scrutiny Committee meeting was held in Lichfield. Firstly we would like to thank all members for their support by attending the meeting.The Farewell Lane and other areas to the East of Burntwood were specifically ruled out for development at this stage of the report, in accordance with documents already in our possesion.

Following our joint strategy we would like to publish a summary of the meeting by Paul Chapman – Chairman of the Burntwood & Hammerwich Action Group.

Dear Colleagues,

It is with pleasure that I report (on behalf of BHAG) that the recommendations made at tonights meeting with Council members (from LDC Planning Officers) is to use brownfield sites to accomodate the 750 new homes where possible.

As described last Friday there are still issues surrounding this – is there enough available land – environmental factors – etc, but the ‘bottom line’ is that LDC has listened to our representations and has changed their opinions and proposals.

The next stage is that the Exec Committee will consider the new options that will be submitted to the Sec of State.

Things could still change, There was a suggestion that homes could still be built on Hospital Rd/ Norton Lane if there is not enough brownfield available – but this would be a reduced number after brownfield as been allocated.

I was very pleased to witness a good turnout from BHAG members at Frog Lane - our attendance sends out a strong message that we are not going to ‘go away’. It was disappointing however that many people do not make that extra effort to change things - it is no use venting frustration towards the wrong people.

It is no use complaining after the event………

I make no apologies for this comment – if we are going to influence things that we are unhappy about the process will hurt at times – time/cost/effort.

We still need to fight hard – although we have made amazing progress we need to monitor future meetings and make our views heard.

Order a sign from Steve if you haven’t got one – 01543 674303. Write to Michael Fabricant – tell your neighbours about this potential blight. Attend local Council meetings.

Compared to our starting point I would suggest (on behalf of BHAG) that we are half way there – a great start.

Our local councillors ‘did us proud’ – made strong and constructive points that justified their positions in local government – good for them )

As ever if you have any comments to make about our progress please mail.

Kind Regards – Paul Chapman (Chairman)

Download the Local Development Framework Core Strategy Consultation Responses by right clicking here and choosing “Save target as” or “Save link as”.

This report considers the responses made to the recent Core Strategy Preferred Options consultation. It also recommends a process of further consultation on the direction of policies. Reference is made to Burntwood in this document and it’s well worth a read.

Links – Report – Lichfield District Council

On 24th February representatives of the following seven groups met to discuss the possibility of a joint strategy for opposing plans for development on greenfield sites in the Lichfield-Burntwood area:

Beacon Street Area Residents Association Borrowcop & District Residents Association Burntwood & Hammerwich Action Group Burntwood Action Group Leomansley Area Residents Association South Lichfield Residents Group Woodhouses Action Group.

Burntwood Action Group hosted the inaugural meeting and its representative Cyril Wilson outlined its vision of an alliance of local Groups opposing Lichfield District’s plans in its Core Strategy to build 8000 homes, mainly on green belt.

Whilst the main focus of some of the Groups was on other issues, all agreed that protection of our surrounding greenbelt was an issue that was worth joining forces to fight for.

A letter approved by all those attending has been sent to Lichfield District Council to inform them of the formation of this alliance and to ask its officers to provide a representative of each Group with the following:

· Dates, times and venues of all meetings relevant to the Core Strategy.
· Permission to attend appropriate meetings as observers.
· Minutes of each of those meetings.
· Agreement that any votes be on a “named vote” basis so that individual councillor’s votes are recorded in the minutes.
· Lists of councillors names on relevant sub-committees.

Copies of the letter were sent to the Chief Executive of Lichfield District Council, all its councillors and the Member of Parliament.

The formation of the alliance was agreed by all those present and the following joint strategy was adopted:

· A full exchange of information between groups.
· Combined pressure on councillors.
· Joint approach to Lichfield District Council to make them aware that we are concerned about protecting all our surrounding green belt and are not just NIMBIES.
· Future meetings to be on a rolling basis with the next one to be hosted by South Lichfield Residents Group.