Vote for the Local Plan to protect Stroud's Green and Pleasant land

Molly and Simon at Baxter's Field

The Chair of Stroud District Council's Environment Committee is appealing to his fellow councillors to get behind the Local Plan, which will be debated at the Strategy and Resources Committee this week, having already been agreed by the Environment Committee. The final decision will be taken at the full Council meeting on 25 July.

Cllr Pickering, pictured recently near the proposed development in Baxter's Field, said: "We need to have a credible Local Plan in place to be able to fight off speculative developments like the one at Baxter's Field, which has been turned down by our Development Control Committee but is being appealed. Unless the National Inspector accepts our Local Plan, we will be subject to repeated similar attempts at land grabbing. This has already happened at Box Road, Cam and developers now have Mankley Road, Rodborough Fields and Nupend in their sights, with proposals based on profiteering rather than the interests of local people."

Councillor Pickering was joined by Molly Scott Cato, local ward councillor and leader of the Green Group on SDC, who stressed the importance of balancing the need for housing and creating employment with the protection of our treasured local environments: "Our Local Plan allows us, as representatives of the local community, to make decisions about where jobs and housing should be located. In order to protect the beautiful Slad Valley, councillors must agree a compromise and pass the Local Plan."

Photo credit Ruth Davey/Look Again. www.look-again.org