Agenda item

[That Council consider the motion received by Councillor Ellis Turrell]

That the motion on brownfield land was lost.

Councillor Ellis Turrell moved the motion on Brownfield Land:

 “The Leader of Wolverhampton Council has previously stated that “every inch” of brownfield land in Wolverhampton has been assessed for housing and has been included in the draft Black Country Plan for development.

The Mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street, will be imminently publishing a report commissioned to assess all brownfield land and seeking to offset the use of greenbelt sites in Wolverhampton. In a previous Full Council meeting, the Labour Group voted against the active promotion of identifying further brownfield land in the city.

On 11th March 2022, Dudley Council announced that it would remove two council owned greenbelt sites in the borough from the Black Country Plan, in response to the huge number of objections received during the consultation. Thousands of objections have been received to building on greenbelt land in Wolverhampton in the first consultation phase. The Leader of the Council has said that he would listen to what people have to say, but so far there has been no evidence of this in the Council’s actions.

This Council therefore:

i)               Rejects the assertion from the Leader of the Council that “every inch” of brownfield land has been included in the Black Country Plan.

ii)              Will upon publication of the Mayor of the West Midlands Brownfield Report commit to working with the Mayor to include any additionally identified brownfield sites into the draft Black Country Plan.

iii)            Welcomes the decision by Dudley Council to remove its own greenbelt land from the Black Country Plan, and commits to immediately doing the same in Wolverhampton.”

Councillor Ellis Turrell outlined the rationale for the motion. Councillor Simon Bennett seconded the motion and outlined the rationale for supporting the motion.

The motion was debated by Council.

Upon being put to the meeting, and a division having been demanded and taken voting thereon was as follows:

The motion was LOST by 26 votes. There were 14 votes for.

Resolved:

That the motion on brownfield land was lost.