Plans to build three houses on the land adjacent to Culverhouse Drive, which is part of the Clockfields site, have been submitted again to Dudley Council – an application that is largely unchanged from the most recent previous submitted application last year.
The plans, submitted by Rob Duncan Planning Consultancy Ltd on the instruction of Oldbury-based developers, Master Freight Ltd, would see two four-bedroom and one three-bedroom property and a detached garage built on land that forms part of the Clockfields site.
In 2022, Dudley Council named Clockfields as a Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation (SLINC), which gives the land greater protection from development in a bid to maintain the borough’s ecological habitats.
The woodland area at Clockfields, which was planted to commemorate the new Millennium, is also protected by a Tree Preservation Order.
Two applications in 2021 and 2024 were refused by the authority, with the applicant unsuccessfully appealing the latter rejection.
Despite being recommended for approval, the 2024 application was rejected on the grounds that the proposal would have a “harmful impact on the continuity of green space and the visual amenity of the area”.
The conclusion was made in 2024 that had an ecological management plan for the remainder of the SLINC to offset the loss of green space and biodiversity been included in the application, the outcome may have been different.
The applicant has therefore commissioned a suite of ecological reports to accompany this application, which include an ecological walkover survey, a landscape and ecology management plan and a biodiversity metric assessment.
The most recent planning statement submitted to the council on June 24 says: “The report highlights that the applicant currently has no obligation to manage the SLINC and that it is not being actively managed.
“The residential proposals within this application present an opportunity to secure the future management and enhancement of the remainder of the SLINC into the long term.”
The statement concludes: “This application has served to constructively and conclusively address the concerns raised by the Planning Inspector in the determination of the previous appeal on the site pursuant to application P21/0006, by providing a comprehensive suite of ecology documents to demonstrate that the loss of part of the existing SLINC can be appropriately mitigated and compensated.
“The Local Authority’s concerns as raised in the determination of application P24/0312 are not well-founded and amount to unreasonable behaviour, having regard to the provisions of the Planning Practice Guidance.”
The application has sparked fury among nearby residents, with over 60 objections having been logged and a petition started by the Clockfields Green Space Campaign calling on Dudley Council to refuse permission.
The petition highlights fears that allowing this application to proceed will likely set a precedent that jeopardises the future of not just this SLINC, woodland and “much-loved” community green space, but also others in the Dudley borough.
The Clockfields Green Space Campaign has been backed by another local campaign group, the Dudley Borough Communities for Responsible Development.
The Chair of the DBCRD, Steve Parkes, said: “Martin Parker and the team of campaigners at Clockfields Green Space Campaign feel as though this threat is never going away.
“As with the other applications, this will be robustly challenged by the local community.”