The chairman of Stone Food and Drink Festival has called for plans which would pave the way for development on Westbridge Park to be scrapped immediately.
Richard Stevens was speaking ahead of Stafford Borough Council’s Cabinet meeting on Thursday 4th October, when the latest version of the borough Local Plan will be discussed. The plan – which provides a blueprint for future development across Stafford Borough – identifies Westbridge Park as a site for “mixed use development”…
The Local Plan has been in development for the last two or three years and is now entering the final phase before it is approved in 2013. It doesn’t go into detail on what kind of development may be approved in future at the park.
Richard Stevens is calling for the plans for development at Westbridge to be struck out of the Local Plan.
He said: “This is appalling news. When will Stafford Borough Council realise that Westbridge Park is at the heart of our community and regarded by all Stone residents as almost sacred? There must be no development of any kind there – it must be kept as part of the green lung that runs through the Trent valley through Stone. This town benefits enormously from events such as the summer festival, the bonfire and of course the food and drink festival. Let there be no doubt about it – if these events cannot continue on the park, there is nowhere else for them to take place. They will cease to happen and the town will lose the wonderful vibrancy and sense of community that makes it such a special place to live. These proposals must be stopped immediately.”
The Local Plan sets out the council’s vision for the development of Stone over the next couple of decades, including housing, boosting the town as a tourism destination, increasing employment and conserving and enhancing the character of Stone town centre.
You can have a look at the plan HERE
The final round of consultation on the Local Plan will be launching soon and will be open until 13th January 2013. Please make sure that you have your say. We’ll let you know how you can do this when details of the consultation are revealed by the borough council. In the meantime, let us have your thoughts by posting a comment below, on Facebook or on Twitter.
- bonfire
- Food and Drink Festival
- Local Plan
- Richard Stevens
- Stafford Borough Council
- stone festival
- Westbridge Park
22 comments
Kris Grainger
we’ve already seen a lot of shops closing in the town centre recently. The development of the park will stop the food festival amongst others. Surely this will lead to more shops and less tourists, seriously affecting the existing traders already in the town. Now if they were going to offer massive reductions to local residents wanting to start their own business then that would be different but of course, it will be an exciting new development so the rent will be top dollar and so no local businesses will be in there. Still, I suppose at least we’ll have a McDonald’s and a Starbucks like everywhere else in the world. Homogeneity rules, so it would appear; yay capitalism.
Of course, this may also lead to more litter and other problems such as boy racers using the car parks etc. But I suppose they’ve already thought of that, what with them having our best interests and not financial ones at heart. 🙂
DCopp
Let’s be clear – part of what makes Stone a desirable and interesting place to live are the events such as the food festival, carnival, Bonfire night etc. when the people of Stone come together. If we lose Westbridge we lose those – a great loss to the town and once it’s gone it’s gone. Better to concentrate on pepping up the High Street than to let developers loose on our green space!
Rachel Jones
I think we should wait till we see the consultation, we might be pleasantly surprised.
Rachel Jones
I think we should wait till we see the
consultation, we might be pleasantly surprised
Jane Proudman
We do not need any more cafes, shops or houses. It is all about growth and expansion, the perceived need for growth is the cause of our financial misery at present…
grewuphereIknowwhatisneeded
I am totally opposed to building residential housing on westbridge or any land near the center that should be developed wisely.
grewuphereIknowwhatisneeded
look at Uttoxeter where the tesco is. Is that comparable to what could potential happen? maybe on a smaller scale and more with the times ‘its a mini Trentham gradens’ esque. Uttoxeter is a smaller place that Stone and has less population yet far better served with amenities. Why is that? Well its more isolated compared to Stone and needs a level of self sufficiency as well as a hub for even further rural communities.
_ Now the NotInMyBackYard Brigade will say ‘If I wanted amenities then I would live somewhere with amenities’ Stone’s growth is reaching a tipping point here where it needs amenities, it is transitioning. Is the population becoming large enough for such a development to become economically viable? its a question of when not if with the proposed housing to be bolted onto our town. these extra houses are going to be built somewhere regardless, the country’s housing shortage is just too high.
_ Also to be considered is the cost travel in the future, its set to continue to rise. Will nipping up to Stafford let alone Hanley for something be a decision that may take more consideration in the future?
_ So to the NotInMyBackYard Brigade who say ‘If I wanted ammenties then I would live somewhere with amenities’ well you might be able to beat back progress but you can’t stop it, it will just come back even more ugly. In the future when the area around the town centre becomes clogged and choked with all housing and nothing else, where will the amenities that will have to be built (no question about it) where will they go? a horrible out of town retail park miles from the centre that everyone will have to drive too, nice.
_ This has been along time coming 20+years when the estates started springing up, it didn’t take long look where we’re at now. I personally don’t want to see westbridge park go but its the lesser of two evils. Lets not be short sighted on this its the only logically direction the town center of Stone can expand, annexing the center onto westbridge is a damn site better than leaving it open for a confusingly placed housing estate and a potential fringe retail park that will draw footfall away from the high street. Lay a solid foundation for the long term, that is good planning.
_ If your too good for amenities then I suggest you start looking for property in Fulford because Stone is progressing into a different place.
Nick Pye
The council should focus more on the poor infrastructure and declining High Street before trying to fix something that is not broken!
ChirpyDeb
When are these people going to leave the town alone – when there is no piece of grass left? Ridiculous. I bought my house because it overlooks the park and now I’m facing having to look at god knows what out of my front window. There has been absolutely no consultation with people who have homes in the vacinity. It seems to me that they have kept these plans under their hats – at the consultation a few months ago at Walton Community Centre I asked if there were any plans for Westbridge Park and they all denied it point blank!
Mike
This a CLASSIC “Not in my back Yard” comment. Do you even actually care about the local community and the youth of Stone or just the price of your house?
@j__kent
If you don’t want this, make sure you make it perfectly clear to your councillor. Ask them how they will vote and leave them in no doubt that they risk losing your vote if they don’t represent your views. Even the careerists will have to think twice about blindly following their leaders if it means they won’t get reelected next time round.
Would this website be prepared to find out how councillors vote in these matters and publish this information?
@j__kent
If you don’t want this, make sure you make it perfectly clear to your councillor. Ask them how they will vote and leave them in no doubt that they risk losing your vote if they don’t represent your views. Even the careerists will have to think twice about blindly following their leaders if it means they won’t get reelected next time round.
Would this website be prepared to find out how councillors vote in these matters and publish this information?
Jack Taylor
What a disgrace! How can the council say they want to get rid of the heart of stone! Westbridge, wezzie what ever you have called it, it is our park not a super market not a set of houses not anything, Just Westbridge Park. A green field area perfect for the football club, the festival, the food festival, the bonfire and any other set in stone event. Why change something which is so important not just to the residents of stone but the county. What a disgrace! #Saveourpark!
Peter Rowley
The park needs to be left as it is, any development should be opposed. If people want a Trentham style shopping village Aston Marina is the perfect site for such a project. Westbridge park is too important to the town with all the events through the year, plus the football teams that use it. Any form of development would be at the expense of the community.
Richard Stevens
Let’s keep our eyes wide open. The ‘nice bits’ of any mixed development eg cafe, restaurant, children’ play area, Tourist Information office, new Scout and Guides huts, festival space etc etc (we’ve all heard the wish lists before) will only be paid for by the money the Borough Council will make from selling the land for the ‘nasty’ bits ie supermarket with car park, housing etc. And then we will have lost the Park.
So be careful what you wish for. Any development must be resisted.
If you agree, then pay heed – we’ve only a couple of months to stop it. Contact your local councillors, your MP, the local press and media.Organise petitions. Shout it from the rooftops. “Hands off Westbridge Park”.
I’ll be doing so myself next week – this week I’m busy organising the Food and Drink Festival on the park – let’s make sure it’s not the last.
Little Bit of Stone
Thanks for commenting Richard. A Little Bit of Stone will certainly do its bit
Little Bit of Stone
Hi Chris. Great comments. More detail is definitely needed but I don’t think it will be forthcoming from the Local Plan process unfortunately. I suppose people in the town need to decide if some form of development at Westbridge Park is acceptable or not. The great thing about the Local Plan is that it forces people to think seriously about how and where the town should be developing and growing over the next couple of decades. Thanks again for your thoughts on this
Steve
We need more details before we can really comment on this. Is the development going to be on the car park side of Westbridge Park? I can’t imagine for a minute that they’d allow development on the ‘green’ bit of the park. And I suppose it depends what kind of development. ‘Mixed use’ usually means housing and something else doesn’t it, which would be totally inappropriate and we should be fighting it. But what if the development is for a cafe or restaurant only? That wouldn’t be so bad would it? I’m not sure. I don’t think we should be opening the floodgates for any sort of development on Westbridge Park. If the local plan is adopted next year with this ‘mixed use’ development for Westbridge in there, the developers, house builders, supermarkets etc will be swooping. No doubt they’re already sharpening their pencils for a planning application already
Richard Stevens
Steve, We won’t be given any more details at this stage – and therein lies the danger. This is a proposal to ‘zone’ of Westbridge Park’s future use for ‘mixed development’. Once zoned it would be up to any potential developer to submit a planning application and only then would we see detailed proposals.
It’s the zonoing we have to stop. W cannot, at this stage, cherry pick what we would or would not approve of.
Little Bit of Stone
Thanks for commenting here Steve – much appreciated. I think you make some good points. If ‘mixed use’ development for Westbridge is included in the Local Plan then it will happen at some point in the future