Public inquiry into Moddershall Valley homes plan

A public inquiry into a developer’s plan to build 34 homes on a field in the Moddershall Valley gets under way again on Monday (3rd November).

Stafford Borough Council’s planning committee threw out the planning application from Seddon Homes for the field south of Nicholls Lane last year, but after an appeal was lodged by the developer, an inquiry is being heard in public and started earlier this month (October). It reconvenes on Monday 3rd November at Stafford Borough Council’s civic offices, starting at 1pm, and a further session is planned for December.

An action group was formed in 2012 to protect the land, which is bordered by the Moddershall Valley Conservation Area to the south and green belt to the north and east. The field forms part of the valley sloping down to the Scotch Brook and the mill race that powers Coppice Mill. The field is adjacent to Hayes Mill and its associated former mill workers’ cottages known as Mill Bank Cottages.

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The action group believes the development would:

• Cause substantial harm to the Moddershall Valley Conservation Area and its setting
• Damage open countryside
• Lead to the loss of protected woodland that forms part of the Conservation Area
• Substantially reduce the gap between Stone and Oulton
• Spoil views into and out of the Conservation Area
• Make maintaining the Coppice Mill woodland impossible leading to the loss of magnificent beech trees
• Damage an important local wildlife habitat.

The group also say that the borough council’s recently-adopted Local Plan (June 2014) identifies an adequate number of housing sites in the town. Their campaign received widespread support from local residents, councillors and Stone MP Bill Cash.

Local people have been urged to attend Monday’s inquiry session. There is lots more information about the appeal and the campaign on the Nicholls Lane Field Action Group website – it’s well worth a read.