Planning (Walsall South)

Valerie Vaz Excerpts

Monday 31st March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Valerie Vaz (Walsall South) (Lab)]

I do not know what to say other than “How do I follow that?” However, the theme of my speech is very similar to that of the petition presented by the hon. Member for North East Somerset (Jacob Rees-Mogg).

Thank you, Mr Speaker, for granting me an Adjournment debate on what is becoming a very controversial issue in Walsall South. What I am about to describe are not only threats to the green belt, but threats to those of us who oppose a planning application in support of it. I refer in particular to an application for 59 large detached houses in Great Barr park.

I am sad to say that one of the developers has already made a complaint about me to the Labour party. I think that is because he believes that I am supporting the residents too much, although I am not quite sure what his grounds are. Moreover, a leaflet has been delivered which makes defamatory statements about me, about my hon. Friend the Member for West Bromwich East (Mr Watson)—who is in the Chamber—and about a residents’ group, the Beacon Action Group, and its chairman Mr Bob Winkle. A personal attack on me has been made by Mr Peter Allen, a consultant for the applicants, who does not live in Walsall South, on the letters page of the Great Barr Observer and the Walsall Advertiser. Both Mr Allen and the applicants appear to want to interfere in my work as a Member of Parliament, but more of that later.

The planning committee of Walsall metropolitan borough council has made two other decisions allowing building on the green belt. It decided that the historic Three Crowns pub should be converted into a single dwelling, and that three additional houses should be constructed, despite the advice of planning officers that that would reduce the openness of the green belt. That was decided in September 2011, but nothing has been built, and the site still lies derelict save for a car wash for which there was no permission. The footprint of the Three Crowns school could have been used as a community building, but there are now to be eight detached houses on the site. According to some of my correspondence with constituents, the planning committee was not given the full history of the site before it made its decision—a decision that the planning casework unit upheld.

However, the development that is causing the biggest controversy and the most personal attacks on people who oppose it is the one on which I want to focus: the development of Great Barr park and hall. My main concern, which I hope the Minister will address, is the use of enabling development to bypass planning law and the national planning policy framework on the green belt. As the Campaign to Protect Rural England suggested in a report published last week, the green belt is not safe. While I welcome the Minister’s written statement of 6 March 2014, local people who are directly affected, and the current framework, are being ignored in the whole process.

Since 2012, when the current owners bought the land, residents of Great Barr park have been unaware of behind-the-scenes discussions with English Heritage and the council, and with the self-styled historical consultant Peter Allen. The site was the subject of an inquiry in 2001, and at a public meeting Mr Allen said:

“Forget any romantic notion of bringing Great Barr Hall back to the way it was in Lady Scott’s time. There is no roof; the stucco and underlying brickwork are badly decayed… all doors and fireplaces have been stolen; floorboards, ceilings and staircases have disappeared”.

Great Barr hall, he said, was

“a derelict shell—that is the…reality.”

That is what he said in 2001, and that is exactly the situation now, with English Heritage saying that there is absolutely nothing of historic value in the building. So why are the developers being able to use this building as enabling development to bypass the planning framework on the green belt? The application fails all the tests set out in paragraphs 80, 88 and 89 of the NPPF, and the developer’s own statement says it will have an impact on the openness of the green belt.

If allowed, this development will extend Walsall, Birmingham and Sandwell into the countryside and the gap between them will be eroded. It will not safeguard the countryside from encroachment, nor does it assist with urban regeneration by encouraging the recycling of derelict and other urban land—all set out in the NPPF.

Then there is the use of agricultural land near Chapel lane. An inspector said at the inquiry that the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food—now the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs—

“considers the farmland within the site to be high quality and would object to development.”

What safeguards are there to ensure that the local planning authority is not there to support the developers, particularly when it is clear, and there is a prima facie case, that the development does not meet the NPPF guidance? The planning authority should have refused it if it was applying the NPPF. Instead, it is engaged in an exercise, and a letter on the council website stated

“we would very much like to continue to work with you towards delivering an acceptable proposal.”

Peter Allen’s website states:

“After prolonged and close scrutiny it is now endorsed by, amongst others, Walsall MBC, English Heritage…and the Environment Agency”—

and that was before the residents were even aware of the application. There is now a disclaimer on the website, however.

My constituents were provided with the notice of planning application on 23 December 2013 and given 21 days to respond. How cynical is that! Incensed by this and bewildered, some constituents contacted me. Some who would have been affected did not even receive the notice. The vicar of St Margaret’s church, Rev. Rutter, who knows about the Scott family whose history is based around the church and who built the hall, has not even been consulted on or informed of the notice of planning application. He could have told English Heritage that a reference to a chapel was never located in the hall and has always been in the church.

The Beacon Action Group, which has been around for the last 31 years, set up a public meeting to discuss the plans. On 1 February, two MPs—my hon. Friend the Member for West Bromwich East and I—heard the views of the residents. All those who spoke to me were opposed. We were not there to give our view, but to hear the views of the residents. The plans were up and people could see them for themselves, and they were horrified.

The hall was to become a wedding and conference centre, but there is one already and it is called St Margaret’s church—and conferences have taken place at the nearby Holiday Inn. Agricultural land would be swallowed up by houses: 59 in total across the site, and they would not be affordable homes. Residents who have had access to the park for over 20 years would be restricted to twice a year, and even now some are being escorted out of the park.

There is an ancient woodland called Gilbert’s wood which has a bluebell wood, which Rev. Rutter, who is a botanist, says has taken 200 years to establish, with native English bluebells. An access road will go right through it, but it seems that in the planning statement it was all systems go except for the local residents. English Heritage could have either saved the building or provided a grant, but did neither. It has known about the hall since 2001. Successive owners have promised to repair the hall but this has never happened, and even in the current application the intention is not to do anything to repair the hall until 10 years on.

Why did English Heritage refuse to meet residents who know more about the history, like Rev. Rutter and the Beacon Action Group? I had to deal with the extraordinary situation of an English Heritage officer refusing to meet me unless Walsall council was present—refusing to meet an MP on the site, refusing to listen to residents, and propping up a building which by its own admission has no historic value at all, and allowing its name to be used to endorse the application.

As for the council, it either knows the guidance or it does not. It has outlined no special circumstances, so why is it leading the applicants on? It seems to want to silence the residents, too. The residents have put up posters, some along a grass verge. The council sent a truck along to remove the posters, even though the grass verge was not on Walsall land but on Sandwell land. It is trying to silence the residents. The applicants’ schedule of works states that the hall will not be restored for another 10 years. Moreover, this is not about housing. The council said in 2011, in response to the draft NPPF, that

“there is plenty of capacity for house building not just for the next 5 years but until 2026”.

The green belt is not secure. According to the Minister’s own figures in a written answer to me, of the 419 applications for development that have been referred to the casework unit, 10 have been called in and all the others were allowed. Of the 10, seven are under consideration, one was withdrawn and two were approved. With those odds, my constituents and those of other Members do not stand a chance of protecting the green belt. They do not stand a chance in the face of bullying, threats and intimidation by those who have financial means and who do not want to apply the guidance.

Will the Minister tell me why local authorities are engaging with developers when the guidance is clear? Why are they engaging with developers and not listening to residents’ concerns? Why did the council not consult all stakeholders, including the Merrions Wood trust and the residents of Merrions close, of Birmingham road, for which there are traffic implications, and of Skip lane and other roads? The council is rushing out notices each time it is told that people have not been consulted. Who is it working for? Why is it allowing supporters of the development to say that the authority making the decision has endorsed the proposal as though the decision has already been made?

I ask the Minister to issue further guidance immediately to all local authorities about the green belt, to make them aware of his written statement and to confirm that brownfield sites should be used first in all circumstances. The green belt is under further threat from the general permitted development order coming into force on 6 April, which will allow agricultural buildings to be turned into residential use. Sadly, the statistics and the evidence do not hold up. Will the Minister please reassure me that the green belt is safe?

Back in Walsall South, walking down Chapel lane towards St Margaret’s church, there is a beautiful silence. We know we are in the countryside there, and the church provides a setting for contemplation and serenity. That will all be lost as a result of a few people making life intolerable for the many, and for the generations to come.