ASTWOOD Bank faces two applications to build housing on largely brown field sites in its green belt.

The first, concerning Astwood Farm, is due to be decided by an inspector in January.

The second, for the incinerator site, is coming before the planning committee on October 19.

While these two applications have some similarities in that they concern sites which are industrial blots on the green belt and are liable to generate HGV traffic for which the access lanes and roads are totally unsuited, different factors are involved in the applications.

I do not see any reason why planning permission for one should act as a precedent for granting permission for the other.

Still less would granting planning permission for either of them be a precedent for granting planning permission for other green belt land, providing that the planning authorities are a great deal more careful when granting planning permission for alternative uses for farm buildings than they were when considering Astwood Farm in the 1990s.

The key questions when considering an application for alternative use should be, how will it affect the openness of the green belt and is the road access suitable?

Unlike the planning officers and the planning committee, I supported the application for a limited development of 15 houses on the Astwood Farm site but I am less sure about the incinerator site.

On one hand, it would be a great relief, I think, to everyone in Astwood Bank to get rid of the incinerator, its attendant traffic and other disadvantages for good.

Also, if an acceptable alternative use for the site is not found, the incinerator project is likely to continue as a running sore into the indefinite future.

On the other hand, although the outline proposal has some merit, I do not feel at the time of writing the problems of access, drainage and previous contamination of the ground have been adequately addressed.

Councillor ANTONIA PULSFORD

High Street

Feckenham