Hopwood Womens Institute which is 90 years old in December;- is one of the oldest Institutes in the County. It was started by Lady Smedley Crooke in December 1920 and it's home is Hopwood Village Hall where it's members meet on the first Thursday of the month at 7.30pm . Don't be fooled that it's all 'Jam and Jerusalem 'because it's a lot more besides.They are a very sociable lot have interesting speakers, go out once a month for lunches, enjoy county meetings covering all sorts of subjects, meet up with other local Institutes, have sports days. quiz nights, and walks and all men are welcomed to their parties, and obviously we welcome any ladies that would like to join us.
Contact HRA (hra@hopwoodonline .co.uk) if anyone is interested.
8-June-2010
Application for 80 Bed-Roomed Nursing Home
This plan is for a three story, 80 room building plus offices. It is proposed that it will have 80 full time staff and 10 part time staff. There will be parking for 57 vehicles, which includes 6 disabled parking spaces, access and egress to the site will be off and onto the island.
This plan has now been put back to the 9th August 2010, for further consideration and possible amendments.
Our feelings on this are that there will be some sort of building allowed on this site in the future, without some good, sound and well founded arguments to the contrary for a nursing home, as this along with Affordable Housing are the only type of developments considered for landwithin the Green Belt.
So if you have genuine concern please put your objections quoting
planning app. no.: 08/1038(Nursing Home at Hopwood)
TO;
Bromsgrove District Council
Matt Tyas
Planning Department
Bromsgrove Worcestershire B60 1AA
Our letter on behalf of Hopwood Residents Association Committee;
Dear Sir,
We have had several verbal complaints from concerned residents reading the above application and must put in these points of objection.
We consider this far too large a development for a HAMLET to sustain;
·Before any of our reasons why this should not go further are considered; we are greatly concerned at the fact that this land owner has covered the whole of the site approximately 18 months ago with hardcore and had machinery there to level and build up levels within it. All of this has been done over a previously green field that has had 2 or 3 containers on it so that it could acquire change of use from agricultural land to storage use. We have found out this was done without planning permission and our thoughts are that this was in order to achieve the end result of this major Development, consequently we feel that this should be restored to its former condition even before such a plan can be given consideration. We have notified the Enforcement Department about this and think this should have due attention before these plans are taken any further.
·Traffic in Hopwood is already a major concern as; it is the main feeder route for the M42 Junction 2, this has been further exacerbated by the building of the New Social Housing estate at Woodpecker Close and there are future plans that will increase this even further with the forthcoming Longbridge development. The increase in traffic of course is a major worry but the fact this development traffic will have ingress and egress to the site from or within very close proximity to the main A441 traffic Island at Hopwood causes us concern that this would lead to serious safety issues.
·Hopwood has already had planning allowed for Affordable Housing which was deemed by the Ombudsman as inappropriate development within the Green Belt and the Council was found guilty of Maladministration for that and for not heeding the Planning Officer's recommendations, we cannot see much difference between that application and this one, as they both contravene the protection of the Green Belt and Planning Policies associated with it.
·A case for Very Special Circumstances with regard to this site has not been proved as there are 4 other nursing homes within easy walking distance already, consequently we can see local need is well catered for, and we believe these existing homes already have plans to extend as well. Therefore we feel that more suitable development sites within Bromsgrove District or neighbouring areas have not yet been considered or investigated sufficiently well before hand to justify this site being released for development within the Green Belt under Very Special Circumstances.
·This appears to be just a commercial venture that is taking advantage of BDC Nursing Home Targets in order to justify development within the Green Belt and we feel that if allowed to go ahead it would set precedence and become just one further step in joining the conurbations of Redditch and Birmingham, as Smedley Crooke Place is the last development in Hopwood before reaching the Redditch Boundary and this Hamlet has always been thought of as a Buffer to protected the Green Belt from encroachment.
·Hopwood Residents Association believe that such commercial applications should not just spring up opportunistically where land is available cheaply or happens to fit in with District Council's Targets and should be developed in harmony and with sympathy for the existing locality and its character. If this application were to be allowed it would be one step further to limiting the openness of this "rural area” and greatly prejudice The Green Belt and its purpose by significantly encroaching into the surrounding countryside.
·
So with the above points in mind please take this as our formal objection to this proposal.
Yours Sincerely
Adrian Smith
Chairman Hopwood Residents Association.
7th March-2010
AGM of the Residents Association, have elected and re-elected officers to the committee, we have also enlisted a volunteer in L.Smith as the new treasurer so our committee at the moment is back up to 7, following the resignation of Mark Peters.
It has been proposed that a few more committee members should join so that their particular area of Hopwood can be represented, I or one of the other members will be asking people in the near future if they would like to take part at our meetings.
The next meeting will be either May 22 or May 23 and will be posted on the web site.
Agendas can be seen the week before meetings by contacting any committee member, if they have not already been posted on the web site.
Already on the agenda for the next meeting is;
1.Fixing the venues and dates for this years meetings .
2.Litter around the area.
3.Parking and Verges along the A441 towards the motorway services.
4.Speeding on the A441 and the need for a crossing.
5 Road signs
8 Feb 2010
News papers are now on sale at the Garage at the end of Ash Lane
A NEW Conservative candidate has been chosen to fight the Bromsgrove seat in this year's general election.
Sajid Javid, a businessman and entrepreneur with family connections to the West Midlands,
The Residents' Committee, complained that the Council did not consider properly an application for 20 affordable housing development units in the
Green Belt, adjacent to a hamlet of around 60 dwellings.
Local residents submitted a petition opposing the development but the Councillor did not pass this to the Council.
To demonstrate local need for affordable housing, the applicant submitted a survey of housing need in the wider parish, some data about average house prices and incomes in the area, and information from the Council's housing register.
The Planning Manager recommended that the Council refuse the application because the development did not meet local or national planning policy. In particular, the officer considered that:
. The development was not small scale, suitable for its location or sustainable
and that the applicant had not demonstrated a local housing need.
. The development is inappropriate in the Green Belt and there were no special circumstances that outweigh the harm caused to it.
. More information was needed about harm to potential protected wildlife habitats and the loss of protected trees.
Members approved the development against the Officer's recommendation.
The Ombudsman found that Members:
. Failed to distinguish between housing need and housing demand.
. Took an irrelevant factor into account in assessing harm to the Green Belt.
. Failed to give adequate consideration to officer advice about protected tree cover, and to Natural England's advice about possible habitats for protected species on the site.
. Failed to give adequate reasons for approving the application.
Finding
Maladministration causing injustice. .
Recommended remedy
To remedy the injustice I have recommended that the Council should pay the complainant.
