Developer lodges appeal to build 200 homes in Stafford
An appeal has been lodged after plans to build more than 200 homes were rejected.
Developer Gladman Land had applied to put up 155 houses and up to 55 care apartments on countryside next to the A34 Cannock Road, near the Wildwood estate and Acton Hill Road, in Stafford.
The plans, which received 178 objections, were refused by South Staffordshire Council last year after a coach load of residents attended a planning committee meeting.
Now the developer has applied to the Planning Inspectorate and Secretary of State to overturn the decision.
Residents are concerned that if the plans for another estate at the old Staffordshire Police headquarters in Baswich are accepted later this month, the developments will cause ‘traffic chaos’.
Councillor Ray Barron, who represents the Wildwood and Weeping Cross ward, was at the planning committee in December.
He said: “The estate is just in the wrong place. I think it will create traffic chaos in the area,” he said.
“And the worst part is that it will on to an already over capacity estate of Wildwood. It’s going to merge into that and be super huge – you wouldn’t be able to separate the two.
“We took a coach load down to the meeting in Codsall and not one of the members voted against – a unanimous vote from the South Staffordshire councillors even though the recommendation from the council officers was to approve it.
“There was about 60 of us and it was absolutely packed. Gladman have a track record of appealing and very often win so we’re not holding our breath. It will cause chaos.
“You’ve got the border in between the two housing estates – it’s nothing to do with South Staffordshire Council. It should be a decision made my Stafford Borough Council or a joint decision.
“With a decision on the old police headquarters set to be made soon we’re deep in the middle of two major projects. The A34 Cannock Road needs to be improved if they go ahead.”
South Staffordshire Councillor Len Bates, for nearby Acton Trussell, added: “The big problem was that the roads and volume of traffic on the A34.
“It’s also on the open countryside and there are problems of the ecology on the site.
Gladman Land declined to comment.
