WHAT YOU HAVE TOLD US SO FAR

July 18th & 19th 2014. Open days

The open days were for the Alvechurch community  to decide which areas of land sited around the edges of Alvechurch village were seen as most sustainable and which areas could possibly be released in a Bromsgrove District Council Green Belt review.

Before any new future sites can be built on in Alvechurch Parish, land would first have to be released from the Green Belt through a Green Belt review. Only Bromsgrove District Council can do this and the APNP can only influence this when it happens through community consultation

Areas for consideration of a future Green belt review;-

Area to the North of Alvechurch village polled over 52%, double the other areas put together. The steering group discussed this at the following steering group meeting and it seems to be logical considering the physical boundaries are better here to contain development and stop further encroachment into the Green Belt. It must be realised that all development will be reliant on land being released from the Green Belt by a  review which is due to happen very soon after the District Council Plan has been adopted following examination, most likely made in the Winter of 2016  or early in the year 2017.

The District Plan is being examined at the moment and if the examiner decides Bromsgrove needs more housing than the Local District Plan currently indicates then Alvechurch may be needed to take more numbers of new housing than was first envisaged. If that is the case then the areas to the East and West of the village would be the next best place for some housing with possibly small parts of the area to the South being needed later on. But this is all speculation until Bromsgrove Planning department have knowledge of their final housing numbers needed  for the district till 2030.

April 2014 whole Parish Questionnaire

This report has been created in response to the 2014 Parish Neighbourhood Plan questionnaire. Each section will outline responses in the form of statistics and also note comments made on each question by the respondents to give an overall view of the thoughts of the Parish in relation to the set questions
There were 193 replies, from 2200 printed versions, there were some postal areas missed due to delivery problems.
Most replies were received from Alvechurch Village area totalling 138 (72%) with the smaller settlements accounting for 55(28%) replies. Consequently some answers especially those concerning housing were likely to be skewed in favour of their area with Alvechurch residents voting for housing to be sited at smaller settlements and vice versa. It was unanimously agreed that housing should be first on existing agreed sites and then on sites adjacent to existing housing. There seemed to be slightly less in favour of housing being spread around the parish. But building on the Green Belt was not in favour by the majority and would have to follow a Green Belt review.
Most people could not seem to grasp that Green Belt land was all that the Parish has left for future housing. This housing for the future will need to be built on some Green Belt sites, somewhere. Only a few respondents seemed to understand the Government’s stance in that development has to be in positions that reduce the need to use cars and should be close enough to walk to facilities or close by public transport links. This leads to the majority of future Parish housing likely having to be close enough to Alvechurch Village itself to be considered as being sustainable.

Results for: Vision of the Parish

The first Vision.

“In 17 years’ time, Alvechurch Parish will be a more sustainable area exhibiting a high quality environment. It will value its inclusiveness, community involvement and culture, and provide people with attractive facilities and access to open countryside. It will be a vibrant place where everyone can feel comfortable and secure.”
Is this a suitable vision for our Parish Plan to be based on?

Yes 178 93%
No  14   7%
Total  192
Further Comments

• Engagement of children could be more explicit as a stated aim

• Without spoiling aesthetic nature of the village and its properties

• Could grass verges be reinforced so that if people need to park on them without damaging them?

• What is the vision of sustainability? What does it entail? What do you mean by sustainable?

• How can/will you assess and measure inclusiveness and community involvement and culture? What is meant by culture? It would be great to aim for greater multiculturalism.

• Yes providing it is not build with no green belt left and the area where you live is no longer recognizable

• Idealistic – but a lot depends on the parishioners – already have access to open countryside by opening my front door and walking down the lane – just hope it is the same in 17 years’ time

• Agreement to the vision on the basis that Alvechurch Parish remains as it is and is not swallowed up by a larger adjoining authority thus losing its status

• Vision is too long – need a short snappy vision to catch resident’s eyes – “To make sure that Alvechurch retains its rural character” or “To keep Alvechurch the town/place that first attracted you.”

• Panacea! We do not want windmills, trading estates and more shops. We have Redditch just a few minutes away
• No mention of local employment?
• Is this a Suitable Vision for our Parish Plan to be based on? Page 5
• Vision is too specific leaving us open to challenge and too ‘Local Government speak’ to be of interest to residents – e.g. “More sustainable area” what does this mean? And how do we measure our success?
• “High quality environment” by what/who’s standards and how do we measure success? “Value its inclusiveness” do we welcome a travellers site and/or refugee housing and how do we measure ‘inclusive’?
• “It will be a vibrant place” more shops or nightclubs, takeaways and more pubs?
• “Everyone can feel comfortable and secure” great aim but within the NPs’ remit or is this mainly reliant upon the Police? How much influence can the NP have for this aim?
• Yes – this sounds ideal – love it!
• Vision is not challenging. I believe a vision should be aspirational and target driven. I would hope this vision is partly met now and certainly within a few years
• Why does it take 17 years? Surely this applies now?
• “Period is too long.” 7 years is more suitable so the over 70’s can then feel they are also involved?
• I remember that the last plan promised the sight of the church across the village,  it promised trees and hedges, we lost hedges in Snake Lane and Robins Hill Drive – both as part of building works – Stick to the plan
• There will be considerably less countryside due to extra housing
• Many of these ideas would change the character of the parish by increasing urbanisation, regulation, traffic, population, and noise
• If it is deliverable
• a strong sense of community
• I do not want to live in a “vibrant” community – that’s for Birmingham and the City Centre!
• If we still have countryside left! (Ref: recent proposed development on roundabout, A441, Hopwood)
• Moved to Alvechurch because I liked what I saw and I do not want to see it change anymore
• There are enough facilities for all ages, people are near to shops etc. – why spoil this area? This is why people chose here.
• Peaceful
• Keep it short, simple, and more generic = more readable and understandable
• Perhaps too visionary ,somewhat vague about what these terms mean

Revised Vision to accommodate suggestions

Even though the majority agreed with the original vision the Neighbourhood Plan heeded some of the comments and amended this vision to a smaller all inclusive new version

The Revised  Vision

A simplified amended vision was the result from consultations and what the steering group have now been told by the questionnaires you have filled in so far:-

THE REVISED AND SIMPLIFIED VISION FOR ALVECHURCH PARISH

“Alvechurch 2030- where managed change and celebration of its rural character combine in a community made better by design”

What are we trying to achieve with our Neighbourhood Plan ?

We wish to make our neighbourhood an even better place to; live, work and visit- a place to sustain or enhance the beauty of our parish and make sure our infrastructure is capable of supporting future growth.

Alvechurch is a rural parish with lots of character, traditional buildings, good schools and shops and it is surrounded by working farms and beautiful countryside. Houses have recently been built in Bromsgrove and the District Council have been told they need to build more from 2023 to 2030 and Alvechurch is one of the  larger settlements that are required to accommodate and help out with some of those future needs. So we must make sure that increased population also brings enhanced infrastructure!

WE WANT COMMUNITY LED DEVELOPMENT.

We want development that will stand the test of time, support the local economy, provide high quality accommodation for all of our community, respect the individual character of the parish and protect our natural environment. We want a stronger voice in local development when planning applications are decided by Bromsgrove District Council.