100s gather to air new town fears

Hundreds of protesters descended on Lichfield’s Market Square to rally against plans to build an entire new town on the outskirts of the city.

Campaigners from the action group Fradley Against Curborough Town (FACT) and their supporters gathered in the city centre to form a united front against developers’ plans to build 5,000 homes on land around Fradley, which has been shortlisted by the Government as a possible eco-town location.

Opponents say the infrastructure in the area simply cannot support such a massive development. The Curborough Consortium has submitted plans for their huge Curborough Town development to Lichfield District Council, which would see three new schools, a community centre, shops and restaurants springing up to serve the new community.

FACT planned Saturday’s march in protest against the current proposals and any future eco-town development on the largely greenfield site. Chairman Richard Holloway said the march had been even better than he expected.

“When we turned into Bird Street I looked behind to see this stream of people following along,” he said, “It was fantastic. There were a lot more people than we had anticipated.” Mr Holloway said he thought that, if given the go-ahead, the huge development planned for Fradley could turn out to be even bigger than initially feared.

“It describes 5,000 new houses – our fear is that this could go up to as many as 20,000,” he said.

Lichfield’s MP Michael Fabricant, who is vehemently opposed to any development on the Fradley site, attended the rally on Saturday and delivered a speech to the protesters in Market Square. He said: “We acknowledge the need for additional housing and for affordable housing. But 8,000 new homes are already planned for the district and 25 per cent of the larger developments will be affordable homes.

“And these homes need to be built where they are needed – Fazeley, Burntwood, and in Lichfield itself – not where Whitehall planners have stuck a pin in a map which will create a ghetto.

“Local government knows the area – not Downing Street,” he added.

Mr Fabricant congratulated everyone who turned out for the march on Saturday.

He said: “You will have sent a clear message to Government; the eco-town at Curborough and Fradley is neither viable nor welcome here.”