Hello again,
I am extremely pleased to announce that the Secretary of State (Eric Pickles) has decided to “call in” Broxtowe Borough Council’s decision to allow hundreds of houses on Field Farm – a Green Belt site north of Stapleford (I have placed a copy of the letter to the Council on my web site – please click here to read the letter in full). You will remember I had a meeting with Eric Pickles after Broxtowe’s decision and specifically asked him to “call” it in.
What this means is that very unusually, the Secretary of State has ordered a public inquiry into the future of the land. This decision is a result of the efforts of myself and other campaigners to save Field Farm and I would very much like to pay considerable tribute to Richard MacRae, Zoe Cockcroft, Jennie Phillips, the rest of STRAG and their supporters from other parts of the constituency.
The reason for this unusual step is that Eric Pickles believes Broxtowe’s plans for Field Farm “may conflict with national policies on important matters”, and he in particular wants the Inquiry to consider whether the plans for conform “... with the policies set out in the National Planning Policy framework on delivering a wide choice of high quality housing and on protecting Green Belt land...”.
This does not mean we have won the battle to save Field Farm – but we have at least persuaded the Secretary of State that it should be subject to a full public Inquiry and not just “nodded through” as we very much feared.
I will of course provide more details as they emerge in my usual newsletter later this week but I wanted to share this good news immediately and thank everyone who has supported the campaign in the face of considerable opposition from the Labour and Lib Dem Councillors on Broxtowe Borough Council.
As ever,
Anna