Dudley Council 'wins first battle in the war' for green belt in withdrawal from Black Country Plan
Dudley Council has confirmed it will spend half a million pounds to stop houses being built on two pieces of green belt land in Kingswinford.
The two green belt sites were included in the controversial Black Country Plan which saw Wolverhampton, Sandwell, Walsall and Dudley Councils put forward sites for 76,000 homes to be built in the Black Country by 2039.
Dudley council's cabinet approved plans to withdraw from the Black Country plan which had proposed 850 houses on The Triangle, Swindon Road and land south of Holbeache Lane.
More than 20,000 local residents opposed developing the Kingswinford sites which Dudley Council leader Councillor Patrick Harley cited as a major factor in "going it alone" by creating its own long term housing plan.
He said: "When there is such an overwhelming response from the public in a consultation like we had, 10,000 people opposing each site, what leader can ignore that strength of feeling?
"When we ask residents their views and the response is so overwhelming I can't, as leader of Dudley Council, just ignore them. Why would they trust another public consultation ever again, about absolutely anything, in the future?"
He added: "We've rubber stamped what the cabinet members have been working on concerning going it alone from plan, we've won the first battle to control our own path but we have not won the war."
Dudley Council officers will now spend 18 months scouring the borough for enough brownfield sites to build the required number of houses which the Government wants.
The cost of compiling a Dudley-only housing plan will cost £500,000 over three financial years, from 2023/2024 to 2025/2026.
The Planning Inspectorate in Bristol will then spend a year deciding whether the "numbers stack up."
Councillor Simon Phipps, cabinet member for regeneration and enterprise, believes Dudley Council had no other choice than to pull out the Black Country Plan.
He said: "It comes down to whether or not we wanted to go along with what the authorities wanted us to do, and that is to build on two critical green belt sites to satisfy their need for housing when we could achieve our numbers of housing on brownfield sites.
"The other authorities made it very clear they would not work with us if we did not include the green belt land in Kingswinford, so we had no other choice to go it alone.
"However, ultimately it will not be down to us, the Planning Inspectorate will decide which is why we need to build a case to keep our green belt green."
