Stroud District Council is currently holding a six-week consultation on alternative options for its Core Strategy which will guide how it seeks sites for 2,000 new homes and encourage a new generation of jobs by 2026. A six-week consultation process runs until March 22nd.

A Special Meeting of Stroud Town Council was called on Monday March 1st to agree its position on the various options. Councillors spoke of the benefits that could accrue from larger housing settlements and that these probably made such schemes more sustainable.   It was considered that affordable housing should include larger properties, not just starter homes.

Concern was expressed about:

• the potential loss of green fields on the edge of the parish if development was accepted in Stroud

• the need for accommodating an ageing population in sheltered housing or retirement units with access to services

• the danger of the infrastructure not following on quickly enough from the early stages of a housing development

• the difficulties of access in the Stroud valleys

• large employment sites being located close to motorway access, separated from housing

• the difficulty of providing work units in housing developments

A consensus developed that brownfield sites should be used for employment where possible and that it was inevitable that jobs would be separated from housing. It was also felt that it would be useful to site housing in locations that supported the railway network.

• Brimscombe and Thrupp should be considered locations for mixed use, not solely housing

• Employment sites should be sought with good motorway access for large schemes and smaller development sites in towns for high-tech / new IT businesses

• Stroud town should take a limited number of new homes – up to 100 with care being taken to protect certain green field sites such as Grange Fields.

Taking these factors into consideration, it was unanimously agreed to support the District's Alternative Strategy E – Town and Country Combination. This suggests one site of 1,000 dwellings and at least 10 dispersed sites of up to 100 dwellings.

It was agreed that the town council was still open to discussion about the actual site for 1,000 homes, but that Brimscombe and Thrupp should be excluded from the list as the area should be allocated to mixed use.

 

More details on the consultation and how to give your views here.

 

Article placed online: Monday 8th March 2010

Photo by Andy Read