Campaigning councillor expecting 'positive news' over Seven Cornfields development

Councillor Paul Birch says he is expecting "positive news" by mid-July as to whether developers can build 650 homes on the 87.2 acres of greenbelt in Wolverhampton.

No official decision has yet been made about the Seven Cornfields, with council planners still eyeing up where a forecasted shortfall of homes should be built across the Black Country.

But Blakenhall councillor Birch, who launched the Save the Seven Cornfields campaign, told the Express & Star: "I am hopeful there will be positive news about the Seven Cornfields by mid-July."

Councillor Birch, who has threatened to resign from the council if the plans go ahead, continued: "We have laid out our case to the Black Country framework team [the Black Country Plan], and we are expecting that we will be pushing against an open door, as thousands of residents cannot be wrong and a handful of politicians right.

"We need to be heard and I believe we have done enough to make our feeling known."

Originally, when these proposals first emerged, developer Barratt Homes submitted proposals for 1,300 homes on the Severn Cornfields, which spanned 284 acres across the Wolverhampton and South Staffordshire border.

However, the proposals were scaled down after South Staffordshire District Council said it would not be taking them into account for its own local plan of housing needs.

Opposition

That meant only the Wolverhampton side of the Seven Cornfields could be built upon. Barratt Homes has named the proposed development its Pennwood site.

The proposals have attracted a 6,500-strong public petition from the local community.

In 2017, a joint planning report by the four Black Country councils found that nearly 80,000 homes were needed across the region by 2036.

A more recent report, carried out in 2019, found that there was not enough brownfield sites in the Black Country to meet housing shortfalls.

The Urban Capacity Review, carried out by the Black Country Plan, concluded that greenbelt land would need to make way for 26,920 homes.

As part of the process to meet housing needs, developers were invited to submit land for housing development, in a process called Call For Sites as part of the Black Country Plan.

Housing proposals across Dudley, Walsall, Sandwell and Wolverhampton were submitted, including areas of greenbelt.

This has caused concern for communities around the region who have fought against proposals to build on green space in their areas.

Housing targets for local authorities are set by the Government, leaving council planners to meet those numbers.

In some cases, those numbers could be overestimated.

West Midlands Mayor Andy Street said that population figures for Coventry - another area in the West Midlands where green land has been threatened by development - are wrong, meaning too many houses are being built there.

It is not believed that there has been an over projection of homes in the Black Country.

Mr Street added: "I remain utterly opposed to any building on greenbelt land in the Black Country and truly hope these unnecessary plans for the Seven Cornfields are stopped.

"There is more than enough brownfield sites in the Black Country to meet the housing demand for at least the next decade, and I will continue to work with developers to unlock derelict eyesore sites for housing to stop the greenbelt being carved up."

Councillor Birch added: "We recognise that even when we use all the brownfield available to us, we are going to be left with some areas of greenbelt to build upon, if we are to follow Government requirements.

"Something has to give, either the Government have to reassess what they are asking of the Black Country, or we have to lower expectations on which sections of our greenbelt are allocated.

"However, greenbelt on the edge of the city is one thing, inner city greenbelt quite another. The inner city spaces are really important to residents, and they are not building any more space.

"Even significant metropolis areas such as New York have vast areas of inner city green. New York’s Central Park is 840 acres, almost three times the size of the Seven Cornfields.

"Good urban planning builds around people's hopes and dreams, not just planners' needs. We do not want affordable housing, what we want is housing that’s affordable."