Villagers criticise green belt homes proposals

"We're a countryside village - we're not a town, we're not a city."

People living in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, have spoken out against plans to build 9,000 new homes in the coming years, many of which will go on green belt land - which makes up 90% of the district.

Councillors are due to meet on Thursday to discuss the blueprint for the new homes, which has been drawn up to meet government housebuilding targets.

Daniel Bright, a parish councillor in Stoke Prior, said plans to build 500 homes in the village, on the Ryelands Farm site, were "ridiculous".

"The infrastructure that we have in this village is just not going to take it at all.

There's obviously the school... I couldn't get my children in there, so they've had to go to Hanbury First School [three miles away], which is now at its capacity as well."

Mr Bright added that he was also concerned about the ability of the roads to handle the extra traffic.

In order to meet government housebuilding targets, Bromsgrove district council has put forward a draft plan of potential sites for more than 9,000 houses, for between now and 2043.

Despite the criticism from residents - as well as Liberal Democrat councillors, the council's Tory-Independent administration warned of the risk of Whitehall intervention if the draft is not put out to public consultation for 12 weeks from 30 June.

"I absolutely accept that we need to build more houses, but concreting fields is not the answer," said Dr David Nicholl, the Lib Dem councillor for Avoncroft.

Dr Nicholl would rather see a range of options for building presented to residents.

"[Stoke Prior] will no longer be a village, it'll be a town," he said.

Emma Tolley's home backs directly onto Ryelands Farm.

"Every morning I wake up, I open my curtains, you've got people walking their dogs, you've got people chatting," she said. "Cows come up to the fence."

Ms Tolley said some of her neighbours had already talked about moving away, and she struggled to get GP appointments at the local surgery.

"How are we supposed to take on another 500 houses worth of people?" she asked.

"We all know that houses do need to be built," said Mr Bright. "But our infrastructure here cannot handle it.

"And actually, Bromsgrove as a whole can't handle the extra houses that are already being built now, down on Whitford Road, Perryfields Road. It can't handle it.

"So, a village taking another 500 houses - it'll just be absolute carnage."

Besides Stoke Prior, the plans would also see 1,800 homes built to the northeast of Bromsgrove itself, 1,200 in Wythall, 600 in Catshill and 500 in both Alvechurch and Hagley.

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