Warning over green belt land due to demand for homes

Members of the council’s cabinet agreed to move forward with a ‘call for sites’ for the Walsall Borough Local Plan, which will identify enough land to create thousands of new homes, employment developments and open space.

Residents, businesses and landowners are being encouraged to put forward their suggestions for sites which may be suitable for development.

At a meeting on Wednesday, members heard the priority would be to protect as much as the Green Belt as possible but added it was unlikely there was enough brownfield land to cater for what is needed.

Originally, the council – along with Wolverhampton, Sandwell and Dudley – was working together on the Black Country Plan to deliver the 76,000 new homes in the region by 2039 – 8,000 of which was earmarked for the green belt.

But this plan was left in tatters when Dudley decided to withdraw from it, in the face of public backlash, in October last year. The remaining authorities subsequently opted to create their own proposals too.

The Black Country Plan sparked strong opposition from people in Walsall with campaigns being launched to save some of the sites identified.

But bosses said all those who put forward sites in the previous plan are being encouraged to do so again

Deputy Leader Councillor Adrian Andrew said: “Residents, businesses and landowners will be able to put forward their ideas for sites that might be suitable for development.

“They also will be able to suggest sites such as open space which they’d like to be protected. The council would especially like to know about brownfield sites and other land that is under used.

“The council will consider any sites submitted when we draw up the plan but it is not a fait accompli that any of these sites will automatically be part of the plan.

“The plan will be consulted on at a later date and it is incredibly important that sites which were perhaps missed by the Black Country Plan are submitted and sites that were considered are resubmitted.

“The call for sites will begin in January 2024 the exercise will include contacting owners, developers, engaged in the former Black Country Plan and we will also contact other landowners who may wish to put forward their land.

“We are going to be incredibly proactive in this process in consulting residents, landowners and developers to make sure we get the right plan for Walsall.

“But the key thing is ‘brownfield first’ to protect as much of the Green Belt as possible.”

Council leader Mike Bird said: “This cabinet nor members will not be swayed by pressure from individual groups – they can put their way forward but they will not be preferred however loud they shout.

“There will be an assessment of all land – whether that be brownfield land or a greenfield site. In my view, it is unlikely we will be able to provide all the houses required without some incursion into the Green belt.

“But it is how that incursion occurs, how we protect communities so they don’t morph together.

“The word is local – it is in our hands but we need to look at all three phases of it: employment, houses and open space. Those three things are the criteria we have to work to.”