I am extremely concerned about last week’s announcement that a further 2 Green Belt sites are being added to the proposed Black Country Plan with a further 685 homes being proposed in my Aldridge-Brownhills constituency.
I have always believed that the Black Country Plan should be doing more to identify brownfield sites as opposed to putting forward precious Green Belt as the preferred development option.
I do not believe that enough work has been undertaken to examine imaginatively how we use more brownfield Town Centre sites to help revitalise and reshape our High Streets.
The fall back option to concrete over great swathes of our Green Belt cannot be justified and I am also still concerned that Aldridge-Brownhills is doing the heavy lifting to provide thousands of these proposed new homes.
There will now be a further round of consultation starting in July and it is extremely important that residents right across Aldridge-Brownhills continue to make their views known.
I will once again be working with Councillors from right across my constituency to be out in our Village Centres and High Streets to engage with as many of you as possible about this consultation.
The Black Country Plan should have adopted a more robust ‘Brownfield First’ policy and I will continue to stand up for our precious Green Belt and Open Spaces.