A piece of land in Telford could be protected from development under plans to class it as a village green.
Lawley and Overdale Parish Council has applied to Telford & Wrekin Council to protect the space next to Beacon House, off Milners Lane, Dawley.
Under recent legislation land can be made an official village green if someone can prove it has been used by the public for more than 20 years.
Councillors believe they need to protect the land from being used for housing as plans have been put forward in the past, although all have been rejected so far.
Sharon Clayton, parish council clerk, said the site was used by local children as a play area and by the local community for outdoor parties.
The move will be considered by the council’s licensing committee on September 14. The council as landowner, says it has no objections, but notes the move would reduce the land’s value.
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5 Comments
Are they mad??? Why would anyone prefer to leave it as open space rather than build houses on it?
We need every house we can get to house the much-needed workers who are flocking to take part in Telford’s economic miracle!!
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‘Rob’ are you in the building trade by anychance?
Telford is loosing open space to new housing estates all the time, i know we need more houses but we still need to preserve some open land.
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Martin, I think you’ll find that Rob was being ironic…
Rob, I can agree with your concerns to some extent, but I think you would be wrong to dismiss Telford’s growth, which according to all the statistics continues apace.
I think we’re building insufficient houses for first-time buyers, and I also believe that a good deal of Telford’s next wave of growth will be in lower-paid jobs, rather than some of the premium high-tech jobs we saw in the 1980s and 90s. Nevertheless I applaud the efforts of the parish council to protect their bit of green space.
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You were right about the irony Peter!
I wish I could agree with you about Telford’s economic growth – there is certainly a growth in low-paid jobs, read poverty wages for agency staff in many factories on Halesfield, Stafford Park and elsewhere. And how can our council even consider building houses on our parks and public open spaces?
Personally I find it obscene that a worker needs to claim Family Tax Credit (and pray to God that they get it right!) to support his or her family after putting in a full week’s work.
And of course, the bulk of the tax and NI contributions are made by the relatively low-paid, with big business paying damn all. (Recently released figues show that all but a handful of FTSE 100 companies pay NO Corporation Tax.)
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Rob, I’m with you all the way. Gobalisation is forcing pay downwards across industries, and even what were formerly well-paid jobs are now less so. Meanwhile fat cats and city brokers, already obscenely well-paid, see their salaries rise well in excess of the inflation rate, often regardless of their companies’ performance!
There’s certainly a case for targetting more of our benefit budget at the low paid – but working folk, rather than on those that prefer to opt out of seeking work altogether – an increase in the minimum wage is much needed too.
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