Stafford Borough Council Local Plan Review

The much-delayed review of Stafford Borough Council’s Local Plan has been dealt another hammer blow. 

Local Authorities, such as Stafford Borough Council, are required to review their Local Plan every five years to check progress on all manner of matters…too many to write here.

The last completed review was in 2017….obviously more than five years ago.

A new Local Plan should have been adopted in Autumn 2022, but progress towards that date was effectively stopped in March 2020 when the first Covid-19 lock down was imposed.

A cornerstone of that emerging Local Plan is to build a new Garden Community village at Meecebrook, between Swynnerton and Yarnfield. The Meecebrook plan would see a new community comprising 3,000 new homes being built over a ten year period and a further 3,000 more homes over the following ten years. Schools, shops, together with leisure, recreational and sports facilities would serve residents. Meecebrook also promises efficient public transport links and train services to Birmingham, Shrewsbury and Crewe. This would be possible because of the HS2 rail line between Birmingham and Manchester. However, as we now know, that part of HS2 has been cancelled, throwing the viability of the Meecebrook project into doubt.

Meecebrook is supposed to accommodate 60% of the planned 10,000 new homes in Stafford Borough between 2030 and 2050. The remaining 4,000 to be built mainly in Stafford, Stone, Gnosall and  Woodseaves. But if Meecebrook is cancelled; where might the 6,000 new homes be built? Landowners in Hixon have already put forward nine sites that could accommodate 2,345 new homes.

Watch this space.