Curborough New Town - Protest March 7th June

by Craig Chapman - 08:58 on 01 June 2008

My recent notes about the proposed Curborough New Town of 5,000 new houses to be built between Lichfield and Fradley in South Staffordshire, have prompted welcome contact from a group known as F.A.C.T. (Fradley Against Curborough Town). 

They propose a march through Lichfield City Centre on Saturday 7th June, starting from Gresley Row, off Greenhill (behind the Bald Buck pub), starting at 12.00. Local Tory MP Michael Fabricant will also be marching. 

Popular Alliance supports such opposition whole heartedly and some of our local members will be joining the march. My own memories of growing up in Alrewas in the 1970s and cycling around the Fradley junction and aerodrome areas for many summers on the trot, tell me that this area is beautiful countryside with historic villages and communities, not prime building land. I also recall a particularly stifling August day potato picking at Curborough in one of Bill Hill’s fields and I’ve had a bad back ever since, but even that experience tells me that those fields are not for building upon. 

The Eco Towns – Britain plans at least 10-15 by 2020 – are part of Gordon Brown’s “big ideas initiative” which translates as something he has been told to do by Brussels. They plan to “fill-in” the areas between Lichfield and Fradley to house up to 20,000 new residents. 

The original New Towns, such as Milton Keynes, Redditch, Telford etc were developed following the BABY BOOM.

So why are looking to undertake such moves at a time of the UK’s lowest birth rate for something like 150 years, especially as common sense directives such as Prescott's "Save Green Land and build upon Brown Land," the inevitable strain upon available facilities in the local city of Lichfield and the existing number of available jobs in the area, suggests that this is to be a commuter town at the very time when we are being told to cut down on driving and when oil shortages loom large. Certainly the term "ECO" is quite inappropriate for a potential commuter town !!

There are countless common sense reasons why these projects should not go ahead and Popular Alliance refer to them in all manner of common sense policies – Farming, Immigration, NHS, Schools, Traffic, Environment & Sustainable Development, European Union……. Mr Brown is going to have give a lot of other ground to get this passed through so many departments and organisations, though we already know that he has very little respect for anyone else's opinion, likewise his snarling pitbull, Caroline Flint.

This however, is not a done deal yet, the consultation period ends on 30th June, so please support groups like FACT.

They can be contacted on FACT@accamail.com and 01283 790 004, or via their website www.FACTinfo.co.uk. If you able to place a poster or deliver some leaflets, please do contact them asap. 

This item will also feature in our housing menu, however as most visitors to this website come to the blog first, we’ve posted this very important, local feature twice.

Add your comment

Your Name


Your Email (only if you are happy to have it on the site)


Your Comment - no HTML or weblinks


Enter this number in the box below and click Send - why?Unfortunately we have to do this to prevent the system being swamped by automated spam