Rolleston Planning Matters

Planning Matters

This section of the village web site has been established for major plans/development affecting the village in general, eg. the college playing fields, etc. It is not intended to cover all plans. Details of all local planning applications are available directly from ESBC.

Save Our Playing Fields Campaign

A Burton Mail article on 7th May reported that Frank Bather, an East Staffordshire Borough Councillor, is calling on people to join a 'pressure group' in a bid to persuade Burton College not to sell off its former playing fields in Rolleston. He is hoping that the land can be transformed into a community sports facility. Anyone wishing to join the pressure group can telephone Councillor Bather on 01283 812532.

College told to come clean over sports field
(Burton Mail article by Keith Bull - 1st April 2009)

Burton College has been accused of ’playing games’ over its plans for an unused sports field. The former Forest of Needwood Secondary School, in Station Road, Rolleston, closed on March 31, 1985, despite a long and arduous battle to save it. Staffordshire County Council handed over the premises and grounds to the college free of charge to use as its Rolleston Campus. When the campus was subsequently shut, the ’brownfield’ — previously developed — part of the site was sold off to a developer for a major housing estate, reportedly earning the college a windfall of up to £5 million. However, the former college sports field at the rear of the housing estate remains unused, and community leaders want the site to be retained as a sports facility for villagers. It seemed their aspirations had been dealt a blow when the minutes of the January meeting of the college accommodation committee — a copy of which has been seen by The Mail — spoke of the ’college’s wish to obtain planning permission for housing development on its land at Rolleston’. The Mail asked the college to elaborate further on the minutes and reveal its formal intentions for what remains a publicly owned asset. However, bosses have now backtracked on the content of the published minutes and instead issued a vague statement about its plans. A spokesman said: "The college has no plans to obtain planning permission for its land, but would need to maximise the proceeds from its assets should it dispose of them." Calls have now been made for the college to be more open and transparent about its intentions.

Rolleston resident Frank Bather, who represents Stretton on East Staffordshire Borough Council and who is a member of the area’s sports council, said: "The college has been playing games. We are in serious need of sports facilities and this is a gem of a site, right in the centre of the community. We want more clarity and openness from the college, and I think it is being very selfish about this. They have gained so many advantages from this particular site and there is a great deal of support for more sports facilities. College bosses have said in the past that opening the land up for sport would result in ’serious legal complications’.

The need for extra sporting facilities was highlighted last year when Stretton Eagles Football Club and Rolleston Cricket Club applied for permission to create new pitches on land in Dovecliff Road. However, the scheme was rejected after planners said that accepting the proposals could create a dangerous precedent as the site — including an associated housing development — was outside the village development boundary.

Another article in the same paper talks about how vast swathes of countryside around Burton could be bulldozed to make way for housing. East Staffordshire Borough Council’s Housing Strategy — a ’five-year plan’ outlining the authority’s housing needs — lists more than 100 predominantly greenfield sites across the borough which could be allocated for new homes, including the sports field and Craythorne Golf Club. A final list is set to be approved by the full council in the summer.

If you wish to make comments on the Draft Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment document please do so by using the comments sheet on the East Staffordshire Borough Council Planning Policy webpage or write to Philip Somerfield, ESBC Planning Policy Manager, e-mail: philip.somerfield@eaststaffsbc.gov.uk. All comments should be submitted by Friday 17th April.

ESBC Site Allocation Document 2008

Those of you who keep an eye or an ear on Central Government activities will be aware that it wishes the national housing stock to be increased by a large proportion over the next 20 years. ESBC needs to provide 12,900 dwellings.

Planners are very conscious of the need to protect the thin green line that separates us from Stretton and greater Burton. However on examining the real nitty-gritty there seem to be four sites in Rolleston that may be considered suitable. At present these are simply sites ‘suggested to ESBC by external agencies’:

The college/school playing fields.
The triangular field at the bottom of Craythorne Lane.
The paddock immediately adjacent to the west end of Meadow View.
Craythorne Golf Course.

ESBC has published a comprehensive 'consultative document' relative to the Local Developement Framework, on it¹s web site, to which the Parish Council, the Civic Trust and Village Design Statement Group have responded. Maps and a list detailing all sites under consideration for development can be found here http://www.eaststaffsbc.gov.uk/Services/Pages/PlanningPolicyLocalDevelopmentFramework.aspx

Villagers against any more large scale housing development should make their feelings known to the Parish Council via the Clerk , the Village Design Statement Group (contact John Underhill on 815266) and ESBC - and continue to monitor the situation closely.