Grant Shapps MP, Conservative Shadow Minister for Housing will visit Lower Broadheath - Elgar's Birthplace village - on Monday, 11th May 2009. He will meet with villagers and see the fields between Lower Broadheath and Hallow where a town the size of Pershore has been proposed under the South Worcestershire Joint Core Strategy.

Harriett Baldwin, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for West Worcestershire welcomed news that Mr. Shapps will meet with campaigners from Lower Broadheath and Hallow who are concerned about plans to cover acres of green fields with new housing. Representatives from SaEV "Save Elgar's Village" and the Hallow Village Action Group will show Mr. Shapps the fields where 3,500 homes are threatened.

Mr. Shapps will also be discussing the alternative Conservative approach to rural housing.

Harriett Baldwin said, "I am glad that the Conservative Party has pledged to abolish the Regional Spatial Strategy should we win the next General Election, which must be held by June 2010. This top down imposition of 24,500 in South Worcestershire is just wrong. However, rural villages will always have a need for new housing and it will be very interesting for all of us who live locally to understand the very different approach that could be possible."

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BACKGROUND:

Map of the fields between Lower Broadheath and Hallow affected by possible 3,500 new homes http://www.swjcs.org/html/worcesterwest_northwest.html

 

Photo: Harriett Baldwin looks at the stretch of fields between Elgar's Birthplace Museum and Hallow