Danger to area (From Ledbury Reporter)

Danger to area

8:50pm Monday 30th April 2012 in Letters

AT a meeting of the Malvern Wells planning committee on April 18, there was an overwhelming feeling from the 50 or more residents who attended that we must safeguard our area of outstanding natural beauty.

The Rothwell Road playing fields are a proposed part of the SWDP for a 35 house development.

It is not simply a matter of not in our back yard! There is a wider picture, literally, that of the stunning views that thousands of visitors a year walk the hills to see.

The Gazette recently carried an article about a new tourism website visitworcestershire.

org. Adverts from it have appeared in the London Underground and visitors particularly like the countryside and scenery locally, but for how much longer?

The AONB Partnership says of the plan: It will impact on views to and from the hills. It seems inconceivable that two of the larger sites for development in the Malvern area would be on greenfield land in the AONB and directly adjacent to the hills AONB are a national designation and should be given exceptional weight.

The site is an integral part of the open countryside.

What is the SWDP thinking of?

There is a real danger that our area of outstanding natural beauty, will become an AOUS (Area of Outstanding Urban Sprawl).

TIA LAMBERT
Malvern