Housing plan thrown out (From Malvern Gazette)

Housing plan thrown out

4:50pm Friday 22nd February 2013 in News

CONTROVERSIAL plans to build housing on “a quintessential piece of Worcestershire landscape”

near the Malvern Hills were thrown out by district councillors this week.

Kler Developments put in a planning application to build 50 new homes on land at Lawn Farm, Drake Street, Welland.

The plan aroused a lot of opposition, with a residents’ group being formed , and the parish council rejecting it unanimously.

The site is owned by district councillor Roger Cousins, who was not at Wednesday’s meeting of Malvern Hills District Council’s southern area development control committee.

At the meeting group representatives and the parish council reiterated their objections.

Alan Madsen of the group said it would “open the door to the urbanisation of the village” and described it as an “artificial sprawl”.

District council planning officers recommended the plan should be refused, as the site lies outside the village boundary and building there would be a visually undesirable intrusion in the open countryside.

Coun Bronwen Behan said there was a need for more housing in Welland, but Lawn Farm was the wrong site for it.

She said: “Most recent development in Welland is along the Marlbank Road on the other side of the village. There is very little development along Drake Street.”

She also said the site is prone to flooding. “We all know how bad Drake Street can get, and remember 2007, when it was actually closed.”

Coun Clive Smith said until he paid a recent visit to the site, he had not realised how attractive a piece of countryside it is.

He said: “It’s a quintessential piece of Worcestershire landscape and it would be an act of developmental vandalism to let this go ahead. Let’s knock it on the head.”

The committee unanimously rejected the plan.