Dudley Council in call for development sites for Local Plan

Dudley Council leader, Councillor Patrick Harley, made the decision last year citing an unwillingness to sacrifice green belt land across the borough earmarked for thousands of homes.

But he said the authority would leave "no stone unturned" in identifying previously developed land to use for development rather than green belt and green spaces.

Now, the council has launched the call for sites as part of its commitment to produce its own local plan.

The authority is looking for any sites that might be suitable for future redevelopment including "previously developed land, town centre opportunities and all other available sites".

Councillor Harley said: "I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, we are committed to leaving no stone unturned in looking for suitable land which can fulfil the needs of this borough. That means suitable to us and local people.

"Dudley is a predominantly an urban area, and we will be looking at urban sites, many of which are brownfield, as we don’t want to develop on rural spaces.

"We must acknowledge that as part of the call for sites we cannot stop people submitting greenbelt or green spaces for consideration.

"But let me be clear, my priority is still to build on brownfield first and exhaust every possible opportunity to protect greenbelt land."

The Dudley Local Plan will focus on housing and employment needs which will inform developments and planning decisions in the future, whilst also reflecting people’s views on the use of green belt land.

The decision to withdraw from the Black Country Plan coincides with the government’s proposed legislation to give local people a bigger say on developments in their towns.

The proposed legislation, which is currently open for consultation, re-emphasises the requirement to focus on brownfield land for housing development and makes it clear councils are under no obligation to review greenbelt for potential housing use.

Details on how to submit a site for consideration can be found at dudley.gov.uk/residents/planning/planning-policy/dudley-local-plan

The Black Country Plan identified a need to build more than 76,000 homes overall in Wolverhampton, Walsall, Sandwell and Dudley, with more than 7,700 on green belt land.

It broke apart following Dudley's withdrawal with each of the four areas now drawing up its own individual plan.

Elsewhere Wolverhampton's leader Councillor Ian Brookfield confirmed none of the sites across the city would be allocated for development and would instead focus on brownfield sites.

Councillor Brookfield said: "Only 11 per cent of land in Wolverhampton is green belt and keeping as much of this green belt as possible is hugely important to our new climate strategy and supporting our carbon neutral challenge.

“Up until now Government planning policy would not permit us to leave green belt land alone – we had to consider it and indeed use it to meet housing targets – and, may I add, totally unrealistic housing targets laid down by Government – thankfully, the Government has finally seen sense.

“We have always promoted a brownfield first approach to our Local Plan, so, I am delighted to announce - subject to approvals - we intend to bring forward a Wolverhampton Local Plan with no green belt sites at all allocated for development.”