The Lickey Hills Society
Registered with the Civic Trust. Registered charity number 1000852
Newsletters
Programme
Membership
Find us
Contact us
Photographs
Projects
Links
Newsletter 95 |
October 2005 |
Communication Masts
Members may have followed the latest mobile mast rumpus this time relating to a mast on the Old Birmingham Road. Arguably the mast would not be not be a great visual intrusion, and the public debate has focused on the possible health hazards of the mast – something the Lickey Hills Society does not usually comment on as our constitution does not cover such concerns. Bromsgrove DC Planning Dept maintains that it cannot accept objections based on health hazard issues as the government believes that the weight of scientific research to date does not indicate major health hazards.
For the Lickey Hills Society this latest application raised yet again the inadequacy of the planning process, or rather its operation by Bromsgrove DC Planning Dept. We are particularly concerned over the issue of the pre-application discussions, as they are called, when the company that wants to put up a mast talks to the Planning Dept about issues such as possible sites etc. Some time ago, a government minister said that societies such as ours should be consulted at this early stage, rather than being left until the final stage when the plans are revealed to the general public who are given a short time to comment on a complex issue.
As members will recall from past Newsletters, we have written to all of those involved in the communication mast business, and both Birmingham DC Planning Dept and Bromsgrove DC Planning Department, emphasising the minister's comments and asking that we should be involved in the early pre-application discussion. Imagine our consternation to find that Bromsgrove DC Planning Dept did not advise the mast proposers of our interest. We took this matter up with Bromsgrove's Director of Planning, Mr Malcolm Griffiths, and he replied that his Planning Dept pass on details only if asked by the developer! This hardly seems to be best practice, as far as we are concerned. One would have thought that after the interest and heat generated by these masts, Bromsgrove DC would use its initiative and advise the would-be mast erector of our and others' interest so that any possible problems could be sorted early on in the planning process. We shall be asking Mr Griffiths to adopt the best practice of other planning departments, eg Birmingham, who have agreed to advise would-be mast erectors as a matter of course without having to be asked.
| Margaret Mabey Society members will be sad to learn of the passing away of the local historian, Margaret Mabey. Long time Secretary of the Lickey Hills History Society; Margaret was well known in the area for her interesting talks on the history of the Lickey Hills and the surrounding area. She wrote the booklet A Little History of the Lickey Hills which the Lickey Hills Society published jointly with the History Society. We shall miss her and her great enthusiasm for her subject which was a great inspiration to many. We also know that she will be greatly missed by her family to whom we extend our condolences. |
Former Rover Sites & Green Belt Land
We devoted much past Newsletter space to Rover's expansion into the Green Belt and, no doubt, memories are still fresh in members' minds of how, more than ten years ago, Rover, with the help of government and others, obtained permission to build the Just-in-time warehouse facility on Green Belt land. Failure to build, they said at the time, would lead to the closure of their whole UK operation within six months. We knew -- their workers had told us – that Rover had plenty of land within their complex for the facility. Rover got their building on Green Belt land, which is always cheaper to develop, but posterity has shown that we were right as they had plenty of derelict land that could have been used.
Of course, although there is a very strong moral case for that built-on Green Belt land to be restored to its former state we do not hold out much hope of that happening. But whilst we are as pleased that the community of workers have the hope of at least some of the jobs returning to Longbridge, we do hope that past mistakes will not be repeated and that if any new building is to take place then it must be on derelict/brown land rather than the cheaper option of building in the Green Belt again.
| Old News During this, our 21st birthday year we thought it would be of interest to dig up items from past Newsletters. Good News for Rubery: Issue number 37 dated January 1993 "Rubery has good reason to celebrate. The Government's Boundary Commission's decision to leave Rubery in Bromsgrove DC rather than incorporate it in Birmingham City has given more security to those green field sites which, as we wrote to Bromsgrove's MP and to the Department of the Environment, would have been prime targets for building development in land-hungry Birmingham. The rejection of the planning application to knock down the Whitehouse, on Beacon Hill road, has preserved for the time being one of Rubery's heritage sites, so retaining some of Rubery 's character and distinctiveness." Happily, the Whitehouse is still with us twelve years later! |
Recent Events
Our thanks to Rob Amos who led the walk on 19th June looking at the routes of the proposed, new road in the Green Belt. Members who attended will now have a very good idea of the impact that a new, and in our view unnecessary, road would have on this lovely countryside, right on the Lickey Hills' doorstep.
Members were playing it by ear on 5th September when equipped with bat sonic detectors we went in search of bats on Bilberry Hill. Lickey Hills Ranger Simon Needle briefed us on bats in general and the species we were likely to detect on the Hills. It was a fascinating and informative evening so a big thank you to Simon for his very interesting talk, and for staying late at his place of work for our benefit.