The decision on plans for a proposed country park, as part of the Forster Country development, has been deferred by Stevenage Borough Council's planning committee.
Councillors at last night's meeting (March 14) voiced concerns about the proposed designs, which include relandscaping the area to incorporate spoil from Bellway Miller’s nearby housing development.
They also suggested that the proposed 3.5 metre circular path – dubbed a “ringroad” during the meeting - was too wide for an area of environmental significance.
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Councillors further expressed concerns for the safety of pedestrians and cyclists in relation to the proposed access on to Weston Road.
“Many of us local people were extremely worried that the council would vote for a bad plan because its own planning officers recommended it for approval, despite the concerns of Historic England, the Council’s heritage team and the developer’s own heritage assessment,” said Chris Naylor, a spokesperson for Friends of Forster Country.
“We are extremely grateful to the councillors who agreed with us that the proposal as it stands is not appropriate for these fields. We are glad that they have recommended an intense period of co-design involving local schools, heritage organisations, disability access groups and national experts such as the National Trust and English Heritage.
“We look forward to working on a proposal that can create a truly progressive, nationally significant and truly inclusive space that we can all be proud of.”
More than two thousand people signed a petition asking Stevenage Council to rethink the planned country park, which included plans to build a 50-space car park, toilet block, storage facility and electricity grounding station on the fields.
The proposal also planned to create a mound out of 25,000 cubic meters of landfill on one meadow, and build 2.5 kilometres of 3.5-metre-wide roads around and through the fields, and to place speed humps, bollards, litter bins and seating around the site, which was the inspiration for EM Forster’s novel Howards End.
Bellway Miller, which received council approval in 2020 for a development of 800 homes on land that includes the conservation site, had promised as part of that development to restore the land to meadows.
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