Pickwood Still Threatened

There will be relief from residents that the broad location for housing at Pickwood will not go forward into the Local Development Framework proposals for Leek. This is as a result of your strong protest, but it would be wrong to relax our guard. It was clearly foolish of planners to think of building 130 houses on land designated a site of Special Biological importance (SBI) and used so much for recreation by local people.

But says Roy Gregg, "Be aware that the very same LDF report that removed the threat of large scale housing contains this worrying comment about Pickwood '...there are some smaller parcels of land on the fringes of the urban area not designated as SBI or used for recreational purposes which may be included….amounting to 50 dwellings.'

"So the Council may try to squeeze a large number of new houses onto various smaller sites in the Pickwood area. Leek Lib Dems will resist all unsuitable housing development here, seeking to ensure that brownfield sites are used first."