Hunts Grove latest

Leaders of three political groups on the council have criticised Stroud MP David Drew and Gloucester MP Parmjit Dhanda for mounting a campaign against the Hunts Grove plans to build 1,750 new homes between Gloucester and Stroud. The Citizen quoted myself and the Tories and Lib Dems.

Photo: Randwick woods

The MPs believe the infrastructure does not exist to support a community of that size in Hardwicke and that Stroud's housing allocation is being "dumped" on Gloucester. They have campaigned so that now the proposals have been called in by the Government.

This call-in could cost council taxpayers over £100,000 in staff time, legal costs etc - and is, I consider, highly unlikely to be successful - it does seem to be largely a political move. See news release here with more info about the plans and my full comments - as an aside it was an interesting process getting the joint statement out into the press....anyhow...the Local Plan was agreed and passed unanimously at a meeting of Stroud District Council in 2005. The Hunts Grove allocation has been accepted by the County Council and through the SW Regional Spatial Strategy, after full consultation with all councils and all relevant bodies. To call in now is trampling over local democracy.

It is just crazy to now go over all that again especially as the alternative does not bear thinking about - where in Stroud would we put all those houses???

David Drew is right that dispersal is good to restore local communities - keeping post offices and community shops alive (where they haven't already been shut) to ensure schools and local services keep going etc - however this quantity is not sustainable - 1750 homes - in reality it would mean the Painswick Valley being filled with homes and every village taking many more homes.

Apart from the costs to taxpayers the delay in bringing properties to the market will only serve to boost house-builder’s profits, as fewer homes on the market mean that they can get higher house prices. It will also delay the availability of affordable houses on the site as some 525 were destined to be affordable.

The fault must lie with national policies towards housing - we are still following a ‘predict and provide’ approach to population growth and housing provision instead of addressing strategies required to achieve a stable and sustainable population and affordable housing.

Annual population growth here in the SW is above the English average. By 2028, the South West’s population will have grown by 16%, the second highest increase in the English regions. We need an urgent debate about suitable population levels for different regions of the UK which also considers levels of consumption, material comfort and sustainability, including the UK’s impact on the rest of the world.

Development in the country is skewed towards the South East, and to a lesser extent towards the South West. We need to review this and develop policies for more balance across the whole country - it is madness to be pulling down thousands of houses in one part of the country and building them where there isn't room - or in the case of the SE where there isn't even enough water.

We also forget to consider good designs in helping to encourage people to live in urban areas and accept higher housing density levels. High density can be highly desirable, but it does require good design. This is crucially important not only for the housing itself, but also the public space around and between the high density housing, such as local shopping areas, playspace, parks, green pockets, attractive streets, allotments and accessible countryside. Indeed Cornish villages are among some of the highest density homes and are very popular. See more re Glos Green party views on housing submitted to the RSS here.

Of course there are also issues re second homes, the lack of social housing and more - but I'll save those discussions for another time - Hunts Grove is by no means ideal but it has been through full consultation and was agreed unanimously - the alternatives would be worse.