Council considers new towns to meet housing targets

Forest of Dean District Council leader Adrian Birch is writing to the government about the new housing targets

A council is considering creating new towns or villages in order to meet government targets requiring house building to almost double.

The government said it was "taking decisive action" by introducing mandatory targets for councils to "ramp up housebuilding, ensuring new homes are built where they are most needed".

It has pledged to build 1.5 million homes within the next five years meaning that the Forest of Dean District Council must increase the number of new houses it delivers from 330 to 600 per year.

Cotswold District Council has already written to Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, voicing its concerns over the new targets and Forest of Dean District Council is going to do the same.

The Forest of Dean District Council is now consulting with locals on five different options.

These include expanding out the main towns, distributing housing around almost every town and village or working with other councils to share the housing burden.

Other options include allowing building to the absolute maximum levels around towns and villages and creating completely new towns or villages.

This option - to "identify one or more new settlements" - has concerned some residents.

Father and son councillors on Redmarley D'Abitot Parish Council Jeff and Josh Wheeler are worried about what a new town would mean

Redmarley D'Abitot Parish Council put on a meeting which saw more than 100 people turn out voicing their opposition to plans for a new 3,000-home town, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Council chairman Jeff Wheeler feels any new settlement would not work.

"It's just the wrong location for it, it simply is," he said.

His son, councillor Josh Wheeler, agrees and is in favour of expanding the Forest of Dean's main population centres rather than creating a new town.

No decision has yet been made by Forest of Dean District Council on where any new settlements would go or whether they would even be built.

Local resident Sally Price said the new housing targets were "totally unmanageable"

Forest of Dean District Council has been putting on drop-in sessions to garner opinion on the issue of housing.

More than 100 people came to the event held at the Bell Inn.

One of them was Sally Price who felt the old housing targets were "almost unmanageable but now it's totally unmanageable".

The Churcham resident is concerned about what more homes will mean for agriculture and animal welfare.

Beryl Watts felt "the biggest mistake was building too close to Gloucester" which is going to "affect the roads" with more people "going backwards and forwards".

Mark Vaughan, another Churcham resident said: "I'm not against some development but it's the scale of the development I'm against."

'Locked out of homeownership'

Forest of Dean District Council leader Adrian Birch welcomed the high turnout and said it was important for residents to have their say.

"This is exactly what we were expecting and what we wanted to see because we have to live with the decisions we are taking over the next two years so it's important the public have their say," Mr Birch said.

A spokesperson for Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said that "for too long people have been locked" out of homeownership, and "all areas including Gloucestershire must play their part to deliver".

"We are taking decisive action to make this a reality by overhauling the planning system and introducing mandatory targets for councils to ramp up housebuilding, ensuring new homes are built where they are most needed – but crucially not at the expense of the environment."

The consultation closes on 11 September with proposals being published next summer, which will again be subject to a further consultation.