Stroud District Council are starting a consultation on the broad management of where roughly 2000 homes should be built after 2016. The aim is to create sustainable communities, with homes and jobs not too far away from each other. This is the beginning of the new Core Strategy process, which will eventually culminate in a Local Development Framework replacing the current Stroud Local Plan.

There are eight options, ranging from all 2000 dwellings at Cam or in the Eastington area, to between ten and fifty homes built in each of forty parishes.

There will be drop-in exhibitions for the ‘Stroud Valleys’ area at the Mortimer Rooms in Nailsworth Library  on Tuesday 2 March and the Sub Rooms in Stroud on  Saturday 13 March between 10 am and 1 pm,  and for the Stonehouse Cluster at the Stonehouse Town Council offices on Thursday 4 March.

Personally, I favour a mixture of the proposals. I think half the homes should be located to tap into the second phase of the canal development, balancing the building already envisaged in Brimscombe. The rest should come from a couple of dozen sites around the District, with about thirty homes in each, and perhaps a couple with a hundred or so. Larger developments bring benefits like children’s play areas, or a school or a shop with them. Rodborough, Woodchester and the Stanleys will have to expect their share and could expect to gain affordable housing, so that both old and young can hope to continue to live locally rather than have to move to other parts of  Stroud because there is nowhere available here.

For more information, check out the SDC website.

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