Housing threat to rural idyll (From Malvern Gazette)

Housing threat to rural idyll

3:00pm Saturday 3rd October 2009

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MORE countryside around the Malvern Hills district, including Elgar's birthplace of Lower Broadheath, could be covered by housing, according to new figures.

Monday saw the release of the latest report on the West Midlands Regional Spatial Strategy, following the "examination in public" which took place between April and June.

Imagine a tourist following the Elgar trail to Elgar's birthplace, all the way through a giant new estate the size of St Peters.

Coun Tom Wells of MHDC

And it shows that parts of Malvern Hills near Worcester, especially Lower Broadheath and Kempsey have been targeted as overspill areas for the city.

In the report, the total number of houses allocated to the Malvern Hills district itself is increased from 4,900 to 5,000.

But on top of that, Malvern Hills will actually have to find room for a large number of the 11,000 new houses allocated to Worcester City, "At least 3,500 will be within Worcester City, at least 3,500 within Malvern Hills adjacent to the west boundary of the city and the remainder split between the city, Malvern Hills and Wychavon districts adjacent to or in the vicinity of the city as determined in the Joint Core Strategy," says the annex to the report.

Coun Tom Wells of MHDC said: "It's outrageous that Malvern Hills should have to bear the brunt of Worcester's expansion. Tourism is said to be important to the area, but imagine a tourist following the Elgar trail to Elgar's birthplace, all the way through a giant new estate the size of St Peters."

Coun Paul Tuthill said: "It's clear that Malvern Hills is being made the growth point for Worcester. Planners are already referring to Broadheath as Worcester West and Kempsey as Worcester South."

Tory Parliamentary candidate Harriett Baldwin said she was "horrified" by the threat to the "rural idyll around Elgar’s birthplace".

"The Conservatives have pledged to abolish the RSS and the whole top-down apparatus of regional planning," she said.

And Green candidate Malcolm Victory said: "I will fight this tooth and nail. Development should be going to the cities, not to areras of natural beauty and conservation. If this kind of thing was a blanket policy, we would have no special areas left."

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