Action groups come together for ancient Stourbridge meadow
A new collaboration has begun to help protect a large area of ancient land.
The Save The Corbett Meadow Action Group and Stourbridge Community Land Trust (SCLT) are looking to work together to protect the Corbett Meadow and to see it managed for public benefit in the future.
The Meadow, behind Corbett Outpatients Centre, is part of the land gifted to the people of Stourbridge in 1892 by John Corbett for the building of a hospital, with 14 acres never build on.
The current owners, Dudley Group of Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which inherited the land, has placed it on a register of publicly owned land with potential for housing development.
The Action Group has opposed development and is pressing for the land to be protected as a Local Green Space in the Black Country Plan when it is published in the Summer.
It has joined forces with SCLT to look at how best they can closely collaborate to secure the future of the meadow.
Threatr
SCLT is a formally constituted body dedicated to improving local people’s lives and well-being and can acquire and manage land to that end.
It has a number of current projects ranging from building low energy, affordable apartments in Stourbridge through to community cohesion work in Lye.
Helen Cook of the Action Group said: "Firstly, we have to see off the threat of new housing development taking away the Meadow forever.
"We also need to see it used positively for the benefit of the people of Stourbridge, just as John Corbett wished."
Eddy Morton from SCLT said: "The Meadow can become a wonderful place for people and protect the abundance of existing wildlife.
"It can be a place where physical and mental health can be refreshed and restored in a twenty first century version of Corbett’s intentions.
"Together we can make this happen."
