Walsall: Campaigners vow to fight green belt homes plan

A campaign group has vowed to fight proposals to build nearly 600 homes on green belt land near a park.

Dozens of people attended a public meeting opposing the plans for the area near Walsall Arboretum under the proposed Black Country Plan.

Campaigners said the land was too valuable to lose and they would lobby Walsall Council to get it removed.

The authority said a further consultation on the next stage of the plan will be held later in 2022.

Under the plan for the Black Country, Walsall has to find enough land for 13,344 new houses by 2039 with 5,418 on green belt land.

The Calderfields West site has been earmarked for 592 of them.

The public meeting on Tuesday was organised by the Save Our Green Belt Alongside Walsall Arboretum group

The group said more than 3,000 people have signed a petition opposing the idea, the Local Democracy Reporting Service reports.

One resident, Bobbi Owen, who is part of the group, said people were passionate about saving the land from development.

"Walsall Arboretum is used by a million visitors a year and this view just lends itself to the health and wellbeing of people of Walsall," he added.

Nearby resident Gerald Kells, from the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said "this is a special site, it needs special treatment".

The land should not have made it onto the list in the first place, Walsall Labour group Leader Aftab Nawaz said.

"There is such a unique value to Calderfields that I don't think everyone fully understands. Once you lose it, it doesn't come back," he said.

A previous consultation on the Black Country Plan finished in autumn and responses are currently being reviewed, a spokesperson for Walsall Council said.

"The Publication Plan will be published late summer/autumn 2022 when all four Black Country councils will be asked to approve for consultation," they added.

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