Speculative developers rely on a singular myth to pave over our Green Belt: they claim that if their housing applications are refused, the land remains a financially “stranded” and useless agricultural asset. Today, the Burntwood Action Group (BAG) Strategic Policy Team is obliterating that narrative.

We are proud to publicly launch our unassailable alternative for the 56.6-acre Coulter Lane site: The Francis Barber Heritage & Nature Reserve.

We have kept this under wraps whilst a formal Asset of Community Value (ACV) process with LDC ran it’s course but we are now officially publishing our complete Master Business Plan and Landowner Strategic & Financial Viability Analysis. By transitioning this low-yielding clay pasture into the statutory green economy via a managed wetland and species-rich meadow, the site yields 50 certified Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) Units. Based on current 2026 market rates, this generates a ring-fenced £1.5 million in capital.

Crucially, executing this transition through a community trust grants the landowner absolute exemption from Capital Gains Tax under Section 257 of the TCGA 1992, ensuring every pound of that capital transfers cleanly to them. We have empirically proven that refusing Bloor Homes’ 250 houses does not financially sterilise this site. We have a fully funded, legally sound alternative that restores our landscape, protects our floodplains, and honors Francis Barber—Britain’s first Black schoolmaster, who lived and taught on this exact “Scholarship Soil” in 1799.

The ACV Trap: How the Council Handed Us another Planning Victory

While the team have been preparing this masterplan, we also quietly tested the council’s legal defenses by submitting an Asset of Community Value (ACV) nomination for the fields. As we anticipated, Lichfield District Council’s legal department manufactured a way to reject it.

To justify their rejection, the council aggressively cherry-picked a specific ecological safeguarding clause from our Master Business Plan. Because our plan responsibly dictates that interior wetlands must be strictly closed to unmanaged public foot-traffic to protect ground-nesting birds, the council ruled our community use of the land is merely “ancillary”.

They thought they were shutting us down on a legal technicality, but they just handed us another great weapon for the upcoming Planning Committee meeting.

The council has now officially, formally acknowledged that the interior of this site must be safeguarded from unmanaged access to protect sensitive ecology. Yet, their planning directorate is recommending approval for a 250-home estate that will pour households, domestic pets, and streetlights directly into these exact same habitats. Under National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) Paragraph 193(a), if significant harm to biodiversity cannot be avoided or adequately mitigated, permission should be refused. You cannot simultaneously use ecological safeguarding to reject an ACV, and then vote to permanently obliterate that safeguard with a housing estate.

We invite all residents to watch our short intro video, review the full Master Business Plan and Landowner Dossier now available below. We have the data, we have the funds, and we have the law.