Growing Staffordshire village to get even bigger as new homes approved

Land off Common Lane in Fradley, where 12 homes are set to be built, was previously earmarked for a pub and has provided green space enjoyed by local residents.

A further 23 properties are proposed for land off Halifax Avenue, next to the site of a new primary school set to be built in the coming months.

Hundreds of new homes are being built in the area previously occupied by RAF Lichfield. The latest plans for 35 homes across sites off Halifax Avenue and Common Lane were submitted to Lichfield District Council by Bellway Homes.

Fradley and Streethay Parish Council has objected to the two sites being used for housing however, saying that the site next to the primary school should remain part of the school as no pick up and drop off point for parents has been proposed.

A response from the parish council contained in a report to Lichfield District Council’s planning committee said: “Although the land (off Common Lane) may not be a designated Public Open Space it has provided green space, which has been used and enjoyed by residents of Fradley. The green entrance to Sheasby estate has provided visual amenity to neighbouring properties and users of the adjacent shopping facilities.

“The area was designated for a public house, which would provide a community facility, long requested by residents.

“It is noted that a community hub is proposed for Canalside but this is a shop, a café and potentially a community space. The area is some way out of the centre of the village and designed for residents 55 years and over.

“There is to be some type of health facility but the exact nature is not known. This is precious little for this community given such a huge increase in residents in what was once a very small rural village.”

A planning committee meeting was told that the Common Lane site had been marketed through an “extensive campaign” between October 2015 and December 2018, with targeted approaches made to local operators and investors, the national licensed and leisure market and active buyers in the wider commercial market.

Nine of the properties across the two sites – just over 25 per cent of the total proposed – are set to be affordable housing, the committee report said. But committee members questioned the housing mix and level of marketing of the Common Lane site that took place.

Councillor David Leytham said: “I wish we could refuse this application. It’s the only bit of green space left in Fradley South.

“Residents are fed up of seeing what was a village being turned into a sprawl of houses.”

The plans were recommended for approval by planning officers however and went on to be passed unanimously by the committee.

The report said: “Operator interest in the site has been affected by concerns regarding location, with a limit on the likely trade from the newly built houses, the predominantly industrial use of the surround area and site size.

“The loss of the public house/commercial site will be to the detriment of the potential social cohesiveness of the area. However, the applicant has clearly demonstrated that this site is not attractive to the leisure or wider commercial market and therefore, its use for an alternative land use, namely residential, is in principle considered acceptable.”