As reported by LichfieldLive, the outsourced planners at Lichfield District Council have officially recommended APPROVAL for Bloor Homes to build 250 houses on our historic Green Belt at Coulter Lane.

They are attempting to force this through because the Council has collapsed its own Local Plan, leaving us with only a 3.5-year housing land supply. They are using this policy vacuum to trigger the NPPF “tilted balance” and sacrifice Burntwood to speculative volume housebuilders.

But their 111-page report is a complete smokescreen. To get to this recommendation, the planners have deliberately ignored hard, empirical evidence and their own statutory policies (some examples):

❌ THEY IGNORED THE POLICE: The Case Officer’s report claims the development will not have a “severe residual impact” on our roads. They completely ignored the active Staffordshire Police Enforcement Log (#682898236) and the video evidence of cars driving on our pedestrian footways where our children walk. Under NPPF Paragraph 115, this active highway failure mandates a refusal, but the planners looked the other way.

❌ THEY IGNORED THEIR OWN GREEN BELT SCIENCE: The planners are trying to call our fields degraded “Grey Belt”. Yet, in their own report, they explicitly admit that the newly published 2026 Green Belt Study concludes that Parcel BUR06 “contributes strongly to purpose (c)” of the Green Belt—safeguarding the countryside from encroachment. You cannot legally pave over a “strongly contributing” parcel, but they are trying to do it anyway.

❌ THEY IGNORED THE FLOOD RISK: The site is a historic, saturated wetland, and the Lead Local Flood Authority holds active records of internal property flooding right next to this site. Yet, they are pushing this through with a drainage strategy that relies on unproven, mechanical workarounds.

THE FINAL SHOWDOWN: MONDAY 20TH JULY This recommendation is not the final decision. The final vote belongs to the elected Councillors on the Planning Committee.

📅 WHEN: Monday, 20th July 2026 at 5:15 PM (or as close to that as possible).

📍 WHERE: The Council Chamber, District Council House, Frog Lane, Lichfield.

BBC MIDLANDS TODAY WILL BE THERE. We need the Burntwood to turn out in force. Bring your Save Our Grenbelt signs. Bring your neighbours. We must form a massive human wall outside the District Council House to show the cameras and the committee exactly what a community defending its heritage and its infrastructure looks like.

They think they can wave this through quietly. Let’s show them they are wrong.