Residents march against plans to build on greenbelt land
Around 300 residents campaigning against building on Greenbelt land took to the streets to march in opposition.
The Spennells Against Further Expansion (S.A.F.E) committee marched through the streets of Kidderminster to symbolically hand deliver a document to Wyre Forest MP Mark Garnier opposing the plans.
The document which has been collectively put together by members of the group aims to respond to the public consultations and to Wyre Forest District Council.
S.A.F.E. chairman Doug Hine said: "We don’t believe that the population projections in the local plan are realistic, I think they've been exaggerated to try and justify this land grab.
"If you take away the exaggeration then there is no need to build onto the greenbelt in the next ten or fifteen years.
"We were very pleased with a very good turnout and I think we made a splash in the media.
"We know in itself that a march doesn't change things at the moment, the process with the council is that they are running a consultation and we’re encouraging people to contribute to the consultation and object to the proposal for our area and make positive suggestions for other ways that the housing demand in Wyre Forest can be met.
WATCH: S.A.F.E. member Linda Walters gives the reasons behind the march
Last week the group met with Wyre Forest MP Mark Garnier to discuss the handing over of the document, which will include individual comments of opposition and outline residents anger.
Mr Hine said: “He was positive, he tried to present a balanced view and said there's reasons why the town centre is as neglected as it is, its because largely there's land owners who sit on properties and aren't prepared to allow them to be developed because they want more money, they want to make more of a profit. Its a process called land banking.
Earlier in the week S.A.F.E. committee member Linda Walters told the Express and Star of the anger amongst campaigners.
Mrs Walters said: "There's a lot of anger around this.
"The whole idea of the march is to just let people know how angry we feel about what they want to do to our fields.
"They want to put over a 1000 houses on these fields which will surround the Spennells estate and double the estate in size and we are fighting against that.
The march started at Kittiwake Drive and concluded in the town centre where MP Mark Garnier received the document.
Wyre Forest MP Mark Garnier said: “It was a good showing, It’s really refreshing to see that so many people feel strongly about their community.
"They’re obviously making their views known which is absolutely the right thing to do.
"Engagement is very, very good and what Im saying to them is they need to get more people to engage in the process, because of course one of the problems with all of this is if your rural view is going to be destroyed by all these houses then you’re going to feel very vexed about it, but if you live in the centre of Kidderminster then you may feel that it’s not going to affect me so why should I engage.
"I think it’s important that we make sure everyone engages, this is what consultation is about, that is not only people that agree with it but also people that disagree with it.
"At the end of the day there is a new need for houses, there’s a challenge for how many houses we need but nonetheless and I think the fact that people are finding it difficult to buy houses is a problem.
"My view on this is that let's have a think about it, have we made absolutely certain that we’re using all the brownfield sites available."
