Perfect site that lies unused

What you did not report was that local residents are now facing the prospect of three separate planning applications totalling over 120 houses on three different greenfield sites on the periphery of the village. This would not be so scandalous if there was not a large brownfield site (the old Blue Circle cement works) adjoining the village to the north which, apart from natural rejuvenation, has remained largely untouched since the works closed finally sometime in the late 1980s.

I must write this, of course, mainly from memory because for many years now local people have been unable to gain access to large parts of the site to view the “supposedly unique” flora and fauna which seem to be the main identified reason why development there has been refused in the past. Successive governments of all persuasions, their inspectors and even most professional planners have been urging for years that brownfield sites should be developed as a first priority and yet here we are 25 years on and nothing has been achieved on this particular site.

In the future will we need to find a few crested newts, rare orchids, or Roman coins on all sites identified for development before we realise this stupidity!

This one site could have accommodated not only the housing development that has taken place in Bishops Itchington since the works closure but also all that currently proposed plus the commercial, school facilities, roads etc, necessary to support it. It is absolutely disgraceful that developers are allowed to nibble away at our greenfield areas while sites like this remain in their current state and undeveloped. Unless they are forced to by rigorous planning policies rigorously enforced by planning authorities developers will never tackle this problem of their own volition because of the additional costs involved.

What is the point of having a national policy if Stratford’s planners and politicians choose not to enforce it. The ex-Blue Circle land is clearly available (12 acres is currently up for sale according to a local billboard) and yet here we are facing three greenfield planning applications with rumours of even more to come.

It would be interesting to know the likely reaction of local MPs Jeremy Wright and Nadhim Zahawi in the light of a possible favourable decision by Stratford planners to the current planning applications. Additionally, and even more importantly, what DEFRA who lay down current Government policy might think?

B Laughland, Via email