By Carmelo Garcia – Local Democracy Reporter
Villagers have welcomed the scrapping of a controversial blueprint which included building a “massive new car-based” town which they feared would have ruined the Malvern Hills.
Civic chiefs of the Forest of Dean have pulled the blueprint for development they were working on which sought land to build more than 13,000 homes over the next 20 years.
The hugely controversial proposals included the creation of new settlements, one next to the A40 in Churcham and another at Glynchbrook, off the A417, at the foothills of the Malverns.
Residents feared a new 3,500-home town at Glynchbrook would ruin the Malvern Hills forever and analysis suggested it would “fundamentally alter” the beautiful landscape.
However, the Forest of Dean District Council has now decided to withdraw the draft local plan after a lack of political support and not enough time to meet the December deadline to submit the document.
“We welcome the council’s withdrawal of the local plan and would like to express our thanks to councillors of all parties for engaging with our concerns over Glynchbrook,” a United Against Glynchbrook spokesperson said.
“Glynchbrook was never a sustainable option for development, as it doesn’t have a train station and would have caused harm to Malvern Hills and surrounding heritage assets.
“We continue to support the delivery of new homes and look forward to engaging with councillors on the development of a new local plan where appropriate.
“As residents from across the Forest of Dean, we ask that the new Local Plan sets out a roadmap for the delivery of the genuinely sustainable homes people need, in the areas best able to accommodate them – not isolated settlements like Glynchbrook.”
The council had been in the process of developing its new which sets out where construction should take place in the district, since 2018.
The suggestion of building two new settlements was included in the draft proposal after the Labour Government almost doubled the housing target for the area from 6,600 homes to 13,200 last year.
But councillors voted last night by 22 votes to six with two absentions to withdraw the latest plan they were working on and instead develop another blueprint under the Government’s new “Gateway” process.
Green Party leaders at Coleford see the area’s housing target as a tall, if not impossible, order given the limited space made available and suited to sustainable building in the Forest.
“The Forest of Dean Green Party is hugely disappointed the current draft plan has been scuppered,” a spokesperson said.
“Had the government not imposed its huge 82 per cent increase in the number of houses to be built here, we’d be well on track to have in place our own local plan.
“The unnecessary grief and anxiety attending this latest round would have been avoided and we would have retained some element of local control over our fate.”
The council is now expected begin preparing its new plan later this year and, after consultations, examination, amendments and approval by councillors, a new plan is expected to be adopted in 2029.