Tamworth Local Plan Review:

Green Belt Appraisal 2012

Lichfield District Council May 2012

Tamworth Local Plan Green Belt Appraisal 2012 Introduction: The purpose and scope of the Green Belt Appraisal: 1. Tamworth Borough Council is preparing a Local Plan for the Borough,

which it proposes to publish in summer 2012. On Adoption, the Local Plan will replace the current Local Plan, which was adopted by the Council in 2006. The 2006 Local Plan defines the current Green Belt boundaries within Tamworth. The part of the Borough that lies to the south of the built-up area of the town lies within the Green Belt. This encompasses the open land that adjoins the Dosthill, Wilnecote and Hockley areas.

2. An Appraisal of the Green Belt within Tamworth Borough is needed as

evidence to support the policies and proposals to be contained in the Local Plan. This is in order to show that the presence of statutory Green Belt within the Borough has been properly taken into account in the preparation of the Plan and that the Green Belt boundaries have been critically assessed to ensure that they are appropriate to fulfil their purpose during the Plan period and beyond. The new Local Plan will cover the period up to 2028. Tamworth Borough Council has commissioned Lichfield District Council to prepare a Green Belt Appraisal Report to provide an independent assessment of the Green Belt within Tamworth Borough, so that the Report can be submitted as part of the Evidence Base for the Local Plan review. It is for the Borough Council to consider the recommendations made within the Report in the context of the Local Plan as a whole.

The Changing National Planning Policy Context 3. The review of the Local Plan is being prepared at a time when the

Government has recently made changes to the national policy guidance that provides a new policy ‘framework’ at national level to underpin the preparation of the Plan. It is replacing a planning system that includes a raft of national Planning Policy Statements, Regional Spatial Strategies, County level Structure Plans and Local Plans, with a simplified system to include a national policy statement and Local Plans.

4. For Tamworth, the statutory Development Plan currently includes the West

Midlands Regional Spatial Strategy and the Staffordshire Structure Plan (as well as the Adopted Local Plan). Both of these broader documents define the general extent of the Green Belt. The Government, however, is partly through the statutory processes of abandoning Regional Spatial Strategies and the Staffordshire Structure Plan. The Localism Act provides the powers to abandon Regional Spatial Strategies, whilst the Structure Plan policies have a limited time period, of around a year, before they are no longer ‘saved’ policies within the Development Plan. It is most important therefore, because of the increased reliance on Local Plans

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within the national planning policy system, that Local Plans are revised to meet the needs of the future. This process needs to ensure that the Green Belt boundaries are appropriate as part of the overall planning strategy for the Borough.

5. In March 2012 the Government replaced a series of former Planning

Policy Statements and Planning Policy Guidance Notes with a single document, the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), which will be the key national document that guides the preparation of Local Plans.

6. The NPPF provides national policy that should be followed in the

preparation of Local Plans. It includes policies to achieve sustainable development that Local Plans should conform with, but also sets out some guidance about the evidence that should be collected to support policies and proposals of the plan. In essence the policies and proposals of a Local Plan need to be supported by appropriate evidence of their need.

7. The NPPF states that the Government is committed to maintaining the

Green Belts that surround many of the larger urban areas across England and that it attaches great importance to them. It says that when preparing Local Plans authorities should consider the Green Belt boundaries and this Green Belt appraisal has been prepared to fulfil that requirement. A Local Plan is the appropriate place to consider whether an existing Green Belt, such as that established within Tamworth, should be altered. It is also the appropriate time to consider whether the Green Belt boundaries have the necessary degree of permanence, in the light of identified and potential future development requirements, to be capable of enduring beyond the Plan period. This Appraisal therefore considers whether the existing Green Belt boundaries are appropriate and examines the issue of their permanence.

8. Within that part of the NPPF that deals with Green Belt policy, the

Framework outlines the purposes of the Green Belt. It also includes policy statements on land uses that are appropriate within Green Belts and a ‘checklist’ of considerations that should be taken into account when Green Belt boundaries are defined. These provide a succinct national policy context for the Green Belt Appraisal. An important aspect of the Green Belt statement within the NPPF is that it states that where Green Belt boundaries are already established, as is the case within Tamworth, they should only be altered in exceptional circumstances, through the preparation or review of the Local Plan. The question of whether there are any ‘exceptional circumstances’ that justify changes to the existing Green Belt boundaries therefore provides a particular focus for this Appraisal.

9. Taking account of the overall context, in terms of the current boundaries

and the requirements for considering Green Belts through Local Plans, the body of the Appraisal is set out in four sections. These are: a brief resume of the history and context of the Tamworth Green Belt as part of the West Midlands Green Belt; consideration of the strategic role of Green Belt in relation to Tamworth; examination of the detailed Green Belt boundaries;

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the issue of ensuring there are Green Belt boundaries capable of enduring beyond the Local Plan time period.

The History and Context of the Tamworth Green Belt 10. It is useful to briefly outline the history of Green Belt policy within the West

Midlands and in particular within Tamworth, to provide an understanding of the context of the current Appraisal.

11. A Green Belt was first proposed in the West Midlands during the 1950’s,

principally as a means of preventing, through planning policy, the continuing outward expansion of the built up area of the West Midlands towns and cities into open countryside and in particular towards the series of freestanding towns and villages surrounding the main West Midlands conurbation. Within the Green Belt new built development would be severely restricted, largely to those needed in association with rural uses. In addition, the scale of buildings permitted as appropriate to those uses, would be minimised.

12. Draft Green Belt boundaries were initially identified in the 1960’s and

particularly relevant to Tamworth, they included a Green Belt of some 5 to 6 miles in width between the edges of Birmingham/Sutton Coldfield and the towns of Rugeley, Lichfield, Tamworth and Nuneaton. These towns lay at the outer edge of the Green Belt. This meant that most of the Green Belt area between Birmingham and Tamworth lay within the largely rural local authorities of North Warwickshire Borough and Lichfield District, as shown on the context Plan 1. This illustrates the current extent of the Green Belt and shows that the green Belt south of Tamworth lies within North Warwickshire and to the west of Dosthill it lies within Lichfield District. Tamworth Borough, with very little rural land to the west and south of the built up area, therefore has a relatively small proportion the ‘sub-regional’ Green Belt area within its own boundaries.

13. The proposal to establish the Green Belt and to define its detailed

boundaries took many years to be formally approved through the preparation of Local Plans. Within Staffordshire this was a gradual process. This included publication of draft proposals within the Staffordshire County Development Plan in the 1960’s and early 1970’s, and then included an amendment to the Staffordshire Development Plan in 1975 that defined a boundary within Tamworth. The Secretary of State approved proposals for the West Midlands Green Belt in 1975, which included the boundaries defined within the County Development Plan amendment. The approved Green Belt included the open countryside areas of Dosthill, Wilnecote and Hockley, but the boundary took account of proposals to develop the area south of Hedging Lane and to the east of Dosthill High Street, principally for housing. Whilst the then Reliant works was excluded from the Green Belt, the area surrounding Dosthill Hall was included within Green Belt.

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Plan 1: Tamworth Green Belt Context 14. For the 1975 County Development Plan amendment, Staffordshire County

Council prepared a number of ‘Insets’ within the Green Belt. The ‘Insets’ showed in more detail boundaries around some towns and villages, including Fazeley, where all of the area between Fazeley and Two Gates, both north and south of the former A5, was included in the Green Belt.

15. During the late 1970’s, most local planning authorities, which had been

given planning powers through a reorganisation of Local Government in 1974, embarked on preparing Local Plans for their areas. For Tamworth its first Local Plan, prepared in the 1980’s amended the Green Belt boundary to the west of Dosthill to allow for the development of additional housing in the Blackwood Road area, so that the Green Belt boundary was re-drawn along the north side of Dosthill Hall.

16. The amended boundary of the Green Belt, established in detail by the first

Tamworth Local Plan, has been carried through the subsequent reviews of the Local Plan so that it is incorporated into the adopted 2006 Local Plan. This therefore is the area of Green Belt that has been subject to the Appraisal and is considered in detail below.

17. For North Warwickshire the current Green Belt boundary is shown on the

Proposal Map of the Local Plan for the Borough, which was adopted in 2006. It defines most of the land south of the Borough as Green Belt although an area immediately to the south of the Ascot Drive housing development is excluded from the Green Belt, including the existing employment land and brickworks, at Rush Lane.

18. Within Lichfield District, the current Green Belt boundary is shown on the

Proposal Map of the District Local Plan, adopted in 1998. It defines the

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area east of Fazeley up to the Tamworth Borough boundary as Green Belt. This replaced a ‘Southern Area District Plan’ approved in 1986, which had excluded land north of the former A5 east of Fazeley allowing for the development of the ‘Riverside’ industrial estate. The 1998 Local Plan added the open land between the Riverside industrial estate and the River Tame into the Green Belt.

19. It is important to note in the overall context of planning for the town, that

because Tamworth is located at the outer edge of the West Midlands Green Belt, while the southern edge of the town lies within the Green Belt, the northern and eastern edges of the town lie beyond the Green Belt. Whilst all of the open countryside beyond the built-up area of the town has policies protecting them against development, the Green Belt area has the additional ‘weight’ of the statutory protection given by a national planning policy.

The Strategic Role of the Green Belt 20. This section of the Review considers the question of whether the Green

Belt within Tamworth continues to serve a Green Belt purpose in the context of both the national policy for Green Belt and the planning strategy for the town. It therefore examines how the Tamworth portion of Green Belt contributes to the function of the larger Green Belt areas of its neighbouring authorities and also whether the Green Belt area has a function specifically related to the character of the town that is important to retain.

21. The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) identifies the purposes

of Green Belts as:

• to check the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas • to prevent neighbouring towns merging into one another • to assist in safeguarding the countryside from encroachment • to preserve the special character and setting of historic towns; and • to assist in urban regeneration, by encouraging the recycling of

derelict and other urban land. 22. In the local context this part of the Green Belt was established to have a

principal function of preventing the outward ’sprawl’ of Birmingham from encroaching towards Tamworth, but it can also be seen that extensions to the southern part of Tamworth could potentially contribute to the narrowing of the open gap between Birmingham and Tamworth. Although this is some considerable distance and it would be unlikely in practice that Tamworth would eventually merge into the eastern edge of Birmingham/Sutton Coldfield, there are additional settlements to consider that are set within the Green Belt and ‘intervene’ in the open countryside between the two larger urban areas.

23. South of Tamworth there is the large village of Kingsbury, to the west

Fazeley is in parts physically joined to Tamworth and there are also the

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smaller villages of Wood End, Piccadilly and Drayton Bassett. Kingsbury, Wood End and Piccadilly within North Warwickshire all lie around 2 kilometres from the edge of Tamworth, whilst Drayton Bassett lies only around 1 kilometre from the edge of Fazeley. The incremental growth of all of these settlements over a long period, could potentially have a significant impact upon the character of the area as a whole, including the perceived extent of open countryside between settlements when travelling within or through the area, views from public places, and the prospect that the outer edges of one settlement could be seen from another, where at present they are hidden from each other.

24. The prevention of this long-term change to the character of the countryside

in the area is the fundamental purpose of the Green Belt and it relates to ‘sprawl’, ‘merging’ and ‘encroaching into the countryside’. It is considered that even though the area of Green Belt within Tamworth is only a small part of the whole, it is nevertheless playing an important role in preventing such an incremental change that, if unchecked, could have a significant impact on the character of the wider area.

25. A closer examination of the landform in the southern part of Tamworth and

its relationship to the built-up area supports the conclusion that the Green Belt within Tamworth plays a significant role directly relating to the purposes of Green Belt.

26. Plan 2 shows the general extent of the ridges of higher land that form a

significant feature of the landscape in this area. The ridges are in the ‘Roundhills’ area of Dosthill, south of the Quarry pool, at around 100 metres above sea level and in the Rush Lane area and south of Gorsy Bank Road, at around 110 metres. They form a broken ridge to the south of Tamworth that has the effect of limiting views of the town from the south. From within the town, in Hockley, Wilnecote and parts of Dosthill, they form an important skyline landscape feature that enables views of open countryside from within residential areas.

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Plan 2. Ridgelines south of Dosthill, Wilnecote and Hockley 27. This relationship of landform to the current limits of the town means that a

significant development of the built-up area southwards would have an impact from within the town and, if it extended towards or onto the ridgeline, would be seen in the landscape over a wider area. There are many publicly accessible places from where a southward extension of Tamworth in this manner could be seen and perceived as impacting on the open countryside.

28. There is one exception to the effect of ridgelines in this part of Tamworth,

which is the land south of Ascot Drive between the A51 Tamworth Road and the railway line, extending to Rush Lane. Here the land is lower lying and the housing already extends into North Warwickshire. South of the housing is a fragmented employment area including open land that has formerly been subject to landfill. This area does not lie within the Green Belt and might in future be subject to employment development. In visual terms, because of landform and nature of existing development, redevelopment here would be unlikely to have the same impact over a wider area than development within the Tamworth Green Belt that extended towards the ridge lines.

29. Although Tamworth is an historic town and the landform of the Green Belt

within the Borough contributes to the setting of the town overall, it is difficult to argue that this plays any significant role in preserving the special character of the historic town. This is particularly because of the extent of the modern development that lies between the edge of Tamworth and its historic core.

30. The fifth identified purpose of Green Belts, to assist in urban regeneration,

is more relevant, in that restricting development within the Green Belt

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limits the overall supply of greenfield land available for development. The national policy to amend existing Green Belts only where there are ‘exceptional circumstances’ means that planning strategies for the town need to prioritise other means of achieving sustainable development.

31. The development of the spatial strategy to be included in the Local Plan

review has taken this approach to considering new development needs for the period up to 2028, but also identified particular regeneration needs for neighbourhoods within the town. It has identified the capacity of, and potential for, redevelopment within the existing built-up area and prioritised this as the approach to meeting identified development needs. For example the Local Plan will identify several regeneration priority areas within the town in both older (the Wilnecote Corridor) and post-war planned neighbourhoods, where some additional housing capacity is likely to be released through the regeneration process, both within and beyond the Plan period.

32. It is only where such needs cannot be met by re-cycling land, in particular

in relation to new housing requirements, that greenfield land has been considered. Although considered as an option within the Tamworth Growth and Infrastructure Study, the fact that the southern part of the town is a Green Belt area, has had some impact by limiting the development land available within the Borough without demonstrating ‘exceptional circumstances’ to justify greenfield land release.

33. Paragraph 85 of the NPPF asks planning authorities to consider, when

reviewing Local Plans, whether retaining areas within the Green belt is consistent with the planning strategy requirements for achieving the sustainable development. The Evidence Base prepared for the Local Plan review, including the assessments of urban capacity, the identification of areas in need of re-development to assist with regeneration, and the ‘Tamworth Growth and Infrastructure Study’ (2009), together show that the retention of Green Belt land within the Borough is compatible with and will support, the sustainable development of the town for the Plan period.

34. An overall conclusion of the assessment of the Green Belt within

Tamworth in relation to the purposes of Green Belts, is that whilst in area terms it is a relatively small part of the Green Belt, it continues to make a significant contribution to the Green Belt, particularly in relation to limiting sprawl, merging and encroachment into the countryside. This is both because of its role as part of the wider green Belt area and more locally because of the relationship of the landform to the built-up extent of Dosthill, Wilnecote and Hockley. In addition, retaining Green Belt is compatible with and supports the sustainable development strategy for the town to be included within the Local Plan review.

35. While these conclusions apply to the general extent of the Green Belt, it is

nevertheless necessary to also consider in detail the specific Green Belt boundaries, to ensure that they remain appropriate for the future when considered against guidelines within the NPPF.

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Considering the Green Belt boundaries 36. The National Planning Policy Framework policy on Green Belt says that

land should not be included within the Green Belt “which it is unnecessary to be kept permanently open”. This relates to considering at a more detailed level whether development of any particular areas of land within the Green Belt would harm the purposes of including land within it. The NPPF also provides advice on the drawing of boundaries, which it says should be to define boundaries clearly, using physical features “that are readily recognisable and likely to be permanent”.

37. The land included within the Tamworth Green Belt needs to be considered

against both of these elements of the NPPF, to examine whether there are areas of the Green Belt as defined in the adopted Local Plan that should be excluded from, or added to, the existing Green Belt. This needs to be considered in the context of the need for there to be ‘exceptional circumstances’ to justify making changes to existing defined Green belt boundaries.

38. There is no specific guidance as to what might constitute the ‘exceptional

circumstances’ needed to justify Green Belt changes and it is a matter for judgements to be made, initially by the local planning authority, in individual circumstances. A range of circumstances might be relevant to whether circumstances exist that justify a change to a Green Belt boundary. For example, at a large scale, there might be a need to draw back the Green Belt to provide land for strategic housing or employment development requirements that cannot be met on other suitable land. For Tamworth, the Evidence Base has shown that housing and employment requirements for the Plan period can be met without the need for any strategic adjustment to the Green Belt. Consideration of ‘exceptional circumstances can therefore be limited to the smaller scale issues of whether the detail of the boundaries is appropriate.

39. At this smaller scale there might be a number of factors that could justify a

change to the boundary. In Tamworth, the Green Belt boundary remains almost exactly as it was defined by the first Local Plan that was prepared for the Borough in the 1980’s. There may be physical changes that have taken place since then that need to be taken into account in terms of the need to have recognisable boundaries that follow physical features that are likely to be permanent. Other factors might include proposed development already in the ‘pipeline’, and judging individual areas on whether the need to be kept “permanently open” can be justified. The existing Green Belt boundaries have been examined on this basis, and recommendations made where it is concluded that the Borough Council should consider a potential change.

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40. For the purposes of this more detailed consideration of boundaries, the area has been divided into two, since they form two discreet areas, separated by the southern part of Dosthill and the railway line.

The Dosthill Area

41. The area of the Green Belt to the west of Dosthill includes the open land

from Dosthill Hall and the Dorcas Centre in the north to the Borough boundary in the south. The existing Green Belt area is shown on Plan 3. Land uses in this area are predominantly agriculture on the rising slopes above the River Tame valley and nature conservation in the valley bottom where the area of sand and gravel extraction has been reclaimed into a landscape of ponds and wetland. A significant part is also in recreation use, principally as Dosthill Park, where the Green Belt boundary extends as far as Tamworth Road. On the higher land close to the Borough boundary with North Warwickshire, the Green Belt area includes the pool of Dosthill Quarry and a significant higher ridge south of Slade Lane. This general area, which is used for informal recreation, has some footpaths and open access.

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Plan 3. The existing Green Belt at Dosthill. 42. It is significant to note that there are extensive views to the north and west

from footpaths and hillsides within the Green Belt area. These encompass views across the Tame Valley towards Tamworth town centre, the Fazeley area and towards Birmingham, which can be seen in the distance from the highest ground across the wider area of Green Belt within North

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Warwickshire. It is also relevant to note that there are some locations to the west from where there are views across the Tame Valley towards Dosthill (and Two Gates), for example from the edges of Fazeley and Drayton Bassett and the RSPB reserve at Middleton, where the Green Belt area provides a rising green rural edge to this part of the town.

43. It is primarily the Green Belt boundary against the urban edge that

osthill Park/Tolson Close

44. owever, north of Orchard Close, in the Dosthill Park area, which forms

requires detailed examination, since the ‘outer’ edges to the Borough boundary generally merge into the Green Belt within Lichfield District and North Warwickshire. Considering the existing boundary from south to north, for the most part the boundary lying against the urban edge follows residential curtilages closely in the area to the west of High Street Dosthill. This is principally in the area of Church Road/Wigford Road, Greenhill Close and Orchard Close. There are no boundary issues in this part of the area that justify reconsideration of boundaries as the existing boundary includes all the areas that it is necessary to keep permanently open, within the Green Belt. D Hpart of the ‘wedge’ of agricultural and parkland reaching to Tamworth Road, there is a boundary anomaly, where an area of open land does not lie within the Green Belt. It is not clear why this area has previously been excluded from the Green Belt. The area concerned is shown on Plan 4, which is an aerial photograph showing the current Green Belt boundary marked in red.

Plan 4. Aerial photograph: Existing Green Belt boundary and Recommended Boundary Change north of Tolson Close, Dosthill.

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45. This roughly triangular field lies at the rear of the dwellings on the north

. A more appropriate Green Belt boundary is considered to be that shown

est of Dosthill Hall

47. he only other area where it is considered that a change to the Green Belt

8. The currently defined boundary at this point does not follow the guidance

9. It is relevant to note here that the Green Belt boundary within Lichfield

0. Consideration should be given to adding this open area north of Dosthill

side of Tolson Close and has hedgerows former its two other boundaries. The area is overgrown with scrub and some trees and is likely to be of some developing nature conservation value. However it needs to be considered relation to its ‘openness’ and contribution to the Green Belt area. It is considered that if developed with some form of built development, there would be a significant impact on this part of the Green Belt, particularly when seen from Dosthill Park, from Tamworth Road and from the agricultural land to the west (for example from the public footpath leading from the park to the south of Dosthill). It is concluded therefore that the area should be added into the Green Belt.

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by the black line on Plan 4 which would run along the boundary of the pumping station and the curtilage boundary of the dwellings on Tolson Close. It is considered that the ‘exceptional circumstances’ that justify a change in this area are the importance of keeping this area open as part of the larger wedge of Green Belt land that extends right to Tamworth Road and that any built development here would be likely to significantly harm the openness of the Green Belt. It is therefore recommended that this change be proposed in the Local Plan. W Tboundary in Dosthill might be justified is in the area of Dosthill Hall. Plan 3 shows the existing boundary, which follows the boundary between Dosthill Hall and properties within Belvoir. At the western boundary of Dosthill Hall the Green Belt boundary is simply extended in a straight line across the public footpath and down the adjacent bank to meet the Borough boundary, which here follows the course of the River Tame.

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in the NPPF of defining boundaries “clearly, using physical features that are readily recognisable and likely to be permanent”. However it is only over a short length.

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District follows the River Tame to include all of the River Tame valley into the Green Belt. Within Tamworth, there is an area of open land to the west of the Blackwood Road housing area that is effectively part of this open River Tame Valley, but does not lie in the Green Belt. This open land has the surfaced footpath/cyclepath that extends from Atherstone Street to Belvoir as its eastern edge.

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Hall into the Green Belt. A boundary can be defined on the ground using the front boundary fence and wall of 4 properties on Belvoir, the road itself and the footpath/cycleway as far as Atherstone Street.

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51. When originally approved in 1975, this area appears to have been

he Wilnecote and Hockley areas

2. The area of the Green Belt lying south of Wilnecote and Hockley extends

. Slopes and ridgelines are very prominent in this area, helping to contain

4. At the northern edge of the area the Green Belt extends in towards

included within the Green Belt but was excluded through the Local Plan process. This may have been as part of the process of allowing for the residential development in the Blackwood Road area. It is however, considered that it is important to keep this narrow area permanently open, as part of the wider Tame valley Green Belt area and also because it contributes to the openness that forms the setting of this part of Tamworth. For example there are views across this area from the Brook End area of Fazeley to the western edge of Dosthill. For these reasons it is recommended that the Borough Council should consider adding this narrow open strip of land into the Green Belt to form a revised boundary that is clear on the ground and which is logical in relation to the wider Green Belt function in this area.

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from the Tamworth – Birmingham rail line in the west to Overwoods Road in the east. The existing Green Belt area is shown on Plan 5. All of the Land to the south adjoining the Green Belt within Tamworth is within north Warwickshire, where the eastern boundary of the Green Belt is the track from Overwoods Road to Whateley Lane Farm. Land uses in this area are a mixture of agriculture and the extensive clay workings of Wilnecote Quarry. Rush Lane passes through the centre of the Green belt area in a north – south direction.

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this part of Tamworth in the wider landscape. The land rises from Hedging Lane and Gorsy Bank Road with some steep slopes up to a main ridgeline on the slopes up to the highest points of the Whateley area, which lies within North Warwickshire. A slightly lower ridge lies to the west of Rush Lane on agricultural land, prominent above the current quarry workings when viewed from within Wilnecote or Dosthill.

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Hedging Lane. This is a lower area of past clay extraction and landfill. Because this land has been left mostly unused for a significant period there is some significant developing nature conservation interest and part of the area is identified as a Site of Biological Importance.

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Plan 5. The existing Green Belt at Wilnecote and Hockley. 55. As within the Dosthill area, it is primarily the Green Belt boundary against

the urban edge that requires detailed examination, since the ‘outer’ edges to the Borough boundary merge into the Green Belt within North Warwickshire.

56. Considering the existing boundary from east to west, for the most part the

boundary lying against the urban edge follows Overwoods Road, then Gorsy Bank Road as far as Rush Lane. This is a clear and defensible boundary that requires no amendment. West of Rush Lane the boundary follows to the side and rear of Daffodil Cottages and curtilages of the dwellings on Fairway and Hockley Road. Here the residential curtilages provide a clear boundary that remains appropriate for the Plan period. There are therefore no boundary issues in this part of the area that justify reconsideration of boundaries as the existing boundary includes all the areas that it is necessary to keep permanently open, within the Green Belt.

57. In the area south of Hedging Lane, however, there is a need to reconsider

the boundaries, particularly because physical changes have taken place over a long period related to existing and past quarrying activity. This has resulted in a current situation where the existing Green Belt boundaries cannot in many places be traced accurately on the ground and it is unclear why the boundaries were drawn in their present location. In other places they clearly do not relate to existing boundaries, for example the boundary passes through the middle of two ponds left as a result of quarrying activity. Plan 6 is an aerial photograph that shows the existing Green Belt boundary in red.

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Plan 6. Aerial photograph: Existing Green Belt boundary and Recommended Boundary Change south of Hedging Lane, Wilnecote

58. The existing Green Belt boundary in this area does not provide a useful or

acceptable boundary for the future, since it meets none of the guidelines recommended for defining boundaries and has little remaining logic in terms of existing development. It would be inappropriate to use the existing boundary into the future in terms of development management.

59. It is clear therefore that exceptional circumstance do exist in this limited

area for amending the Green Belt boundary. There is a need to establish a suitable boundary that takes account of existing and proposed development in this area, and is drawn to follow features that will be likely to be permanent. In this respect, there is a current planning permission for housing development on the land south of Hedging Lane that needs to be taken into account. The existing permission for the most part is on reclaimed land that is not within the Green Belt, although a small part of the site does lie in the Green Belt.

60. A recommended boundary is shown in black on Plan 6. The boundary

has been defined to follow the rear property boundaries of dwellings fronting onto Hedging Lane. It excludes a bungalow that is currently the last property on Hedging Lane before the open land that has planning permission for housing. By itself this bungalow curtilage would play no role in preserving the openness of the area and there is clearly no need for it to remain part of the Green Belt. The recommended boundary follows the proposed development boundary of the housing area and the existing boundaries of the Riverside employment area and the Hanson brickworks. It is considered that the revised boundary is clear and defensible and would be appropriate for the Plan period.

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Quarrying

61. As noted above a significant part of the Green Belt land south of Wilnecote forms part of a quarry producing clay for local brickworks. This activity will continue into the future with other areas subject to further quarrying and some areas subject to landfill and land restoration. It is appropriate to consider whether the nature of this activity should call into question the Green Belt designation of this part of the area, since it has a significant impact on the quality of the landscape as activity takes place.

62. Green Belt policy is not a policy primarily focussed on the quality of

landscape. As noted at paragraph 19 of this Report, the 5 purposes of Green Belts are defined as an element of Government planning policy and now incorporated into the National Planning Policy Framework. The purposes are related to issues of containing sprawl, merging, encroachment into countryside and regeneration and there is no reference to landscape quality. In addition to this, paragraph 90 of the NPPF identifies mineral extraction as a form of development not inappropriate in Green Belt. The key point in relation to this is that the considerations of Green Belt relate to maintaining its openness in the long term. The quarrying for clay taking place south of Wilnecote does not of itself impact on the openness of the area, although it clearly has an impact on its current character. The quarrying is a temporary activity, where land restoration can follow, retaining the level of openness, so that the land continues to contribute to the openness of the area in the long term. It is concluded therefore that the quarrying activity in the area does not call into question the value of the Green Belt in this area.

The Permanence of the Green Belt 63. The National Planning Policy Framework notes that the essential

characteristics of Green Belts are their openness and their permanence. It indicates, at paragraph 83, that when preparing or review their Local Plans, authorities should consider the Green Belt boundaries “having regard to their intended permanence in the long term, so that they should be capable of enduring beyond the plan period.” To assist in the consideration of long term permanence of Green Belts the NPPF guidance (paragraph 85) further says that local planning authorities should satisfy themselves that Green Belt boundaries will not need to be altered at the end of the Development Plan period.

64. There is therefore a need to consider the issue of the longer term within

the Green Belt Appraisal. Although there is no guidance on the meaning of ‘long term’, for the purposes of the Green Belt Appraisal it has been taken that consideration of the potential needs of the next Local Plan period after the current Local Plan period of 2028, would meet the needs of the term ‘well beyond’ the plan period.

65. Looking ahead at the potential scale of development needs beyond 2028

is a difficult exercise. There are current projections of population and

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household increase that extend to 2035 prepared by the Office for National Statistics. These show a likely continuing housing need within the West Midlands and Staffordshire, but they are trend-based forecasts. It needs to be recognised that the current projections will be revised several times before the period is actually reached, but in addition, that they take no account of possible planning strategies into the future. There is no regional or sub-regional strategy available to provide a context for the longer term. It is likely that there will be a continuing need for some development to meet Tamworth’s needs beyond the Plan period, but the scale is unpredictable. It is therefore considered that the most appropriate approach is to consider the future options to meet long-term needs.

66. The planning strategy for the Local Plan review proposed by the Borough

Council will place a significant emphasis on regeneration of some of the town’s older areas. This will include a regeneration corridor along the former route of the A5 through the town, in the Wilnecote area, which is one of the older parts of the town. This regeneration corridor will be likely to yield additional housing during the Plan period, but it is important to note that the regeneration strategy is intended to be long term and to continue beyond the Plan period.

67. The Local Plan review has identified several post-war planned

neighbourhoods that have high levels of deprivation and poor quality environment, as areas in need of regeneration. The neighbourhoods of Amington, Belgrave, Glascote Heath, Stonydelph, Tinkers Green and Leyfields have been identified as proposed regeneration priority areas. They are areas that have a high proportion of social housing and contain housing stock that is coming to the end of its useful life where redevelopment may be necessary. The objectives for these areas are to build cohesive and sustainable communities and to enhance the housing mix. As a long term strategy it is likely that the delivery of additional housing capacity arising from within the post-war planned neighbourhoods will be focussed beyond the end of the current Plan period. These areas could therefore be one of the principal sources of additional housing within the Borough beyond the Plan period.

68. It can be anticipated therefore that there will be a significant additional

yield of housing capacity within regeneration areas that can contribute to needs beyond the Plan period and more importantly, that this will be a long term priority of the planning strategy for Tamworth. Additionally, experience in Tamworth and elsewhere has shown that urban capacity arises from a number of sources, particularly through redundancy of uses, for example within older employment areas.

69. The preparation of the Tamworth Local Plan review has included

examination of the potential to find suitable greenfield locations for housing that would meet the needs of the town against a scale of development that was initially identified through work on the review of the West Midlands Regional Strategy, although this work has subsequently been halted by the Government. The options for growth through extensions to Tamworth

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were considered in the preparation of the Tamworth Future Development and Infrastructure Study, in 2009. The Study forms part of the Evidence Base for the Local Plan review.

70. The Tamworth Future Development and Infrastructure Study considered

seven large-scale options for housing growth on the periphery of the town, a number of which were located within the adjacent local authority areas of North Warwickshire Borough and Lichfield District. It is important to note that as a result of the Study and the consideration of the options, Tamworth Borough Council is working towards agreements with both adjacent local planning authorities, that their Local Plans will provide for housing land to be made available to meet the needs of Tamworth. Because of the need for a phased but comprehensive approach to housing development and the availability of the large scale housing location within the Borough boundary at Anker Valley, the agreements will provide for development within the areas beyond the Borough boundary towards the latter part of the current Plan period. It is open for future similar agreements to be negotiated if a long-term need is identified to meet needs of Tamworth.

71. The Tamworth Future Development and Infrastructure Study used a

scoring system to assess the range of sites considered against a number of criteria. It is relevant to note that the overall results of this approach placed the ‘south of the Borough’ option that included the Tamworth Green Belt land, as the worst performing of all the options. This was particularly in relation to environmental protection and deliverability considerations. The location of the option within Green Belt was one of several environmental factors taken into account in the Study. These conclusions suggest that should there be a future long term need for a strategy that included greenfield development, ‘south of the Borough’ would be the least appropriate option to meet that need and there would be a need to eliminate other non-Green belt options before a Green Belt option could be justified.

72. The conclusions to be drawn in relation to the longer term for the

Tamworth Green Belt area are therefore: that it is difficult to assess the potential level of need for greenfield development beyond the Plan period, but that the long-term emphasis of planning strategy for the town will be on regeneration. In addition to new urban capacity, there are likely to remain potential options for greenfield development that would not require loss of Green Belt. Dependent upon the level of need identified at the time of a Local Plan review for the next plan period there may be a need to consider a ‘sub-regional’ approach for the area. In the light of existing long term regeneration strategies for the town, the potential options for meeting future needs and the conclusion that the Green Belt south of the town plays an important role contributing to the purposes of the Green Belt, the Tamworth Green Belt area should be retained beyond the Plan period.

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Summary and Recommendations 73. An area of Green Belt within Tamworth has been formally approved since

1975 and its detailed boundaries have remained largely unchanged since the 1980’s when provision was made for new housing in the first Local Plan for the Borough. This means that the Green Belt area has largely fulfilled its’ role over a long time period, which is an essential feature of Green Belt policy.

74. The preparation of the Local Plan review is an appropriate time to carry

out an appraisal of the Green Belt to assess it’s continued relevance and detailed boundaries in order that it is seen to be ‘fit for purpose’ for the Local Plan period and beyond.

75. It is concluded that the Green Belt within Tamworth continues to make a

significant contribution to the wider Green Belt strategy for the area lying between Tamworth and the Birmingham conurbation, supporting in particular the prevention of urban sprawl, merging of towns and encroachment into the countryside.

76. Because of the nature of the slopes and ridges south of Dosthill, Wilnecote

and Hockley, there are significant landscape thresholds in terms of visibility that should not be breached, because of a potential wider impact of development on the functions of the Green Belt in this area.

77. The assessment of detailed boundaries has identified locations where the

current boundaries are not satisfactory in terms of land which it necessary to keep open and the ability to properly operate development management into the future with clearly identifiable boundaries.

78. Particular locations where it is recommended that boundaries should be

amended are:

• Land to the rear of Tolson Close adjacent to the pumping station in Dosthill. The recommended boundary is shown on Plan 4.

• The open land lying west of the residential area between Dosthill Hall

and Atherstone Street (B5404), Dosthill.

• The area of land south of Hedging Lane Wilnecote. The recommended boundary is shown on Plan 6.

The justification for the recommendations is included in the body of the Appraisal.

79. With the relatively minor adjustments recommended, the Green Belt

should provide a satisfactory long-term planning policy mechanism to fulfil the needs of the wider Green Belt area, including the areas within North Warwickshire Borough and Lichfield District. Taking account of long term

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