RESIDENTS need to “keep stropping, vigorously” if they are to stand a chance of stopping hundreds of homes being built on their doorstep, say campaigners.

Dozens attended a meeting on Saturday (September 16) to discuss an application by Robert Hitchins Ltd to build 375 homes on the edge of Newent.

Organised by campaign group Future Newent, which is made up of concerned residents and former councillors, the meeting at Picklenash Junior School gave residents a chance to ask questions of some of those in the know about the application, and how they can stop it in its tracks.

It follows a protest march through town last week in which dozens of residents demonstrated their opposition to the plans.

Many attendees were in agreement that the application represents “the wrong type of housing” for Newent, and would turn their town into a dormitory of Gloucester.

Concerns were heard about a “broken” planning system, the Forest Council’s lack of a five year land supply and the homes being “dumped” on Newent in order to meet a government-set housing quota for the district.

Deputy Chair of the Development Management Committee at Forest of Dean District Council (FODDC) Gill Moseley (Lib Dem, Newent) answered questions from the public about the planning process, while group members Clare Stone, Christine Moore and Sid James spoke about the campaign and the future of Newent.

Cllr Moseley began by saying the current planning process is “broken” and less about the concerns of residents, such as the impact on infrastructure and culture, than about policy and regulations.

“The planning process, in my view is not about common sense. It’s about rules, regulations and policies. And if you don’t take that on board, then it’s going to be a very frustrating experience.

“The planning system that we’ve got the moment in my opinion is broken, but it’s what we’ve got to work with.”

One member of the public questioned the lack of a five year land supply in the Forest, which is a list of sites sufficient to provide five years of housing measured against local requirement.

It was suggested having one would give the council more control over the locations of housing developments in the district.

Cllr Moseley said the Forest is “by no means unique” as most local authorities do not have one, but the lack of a five year land supply does mean the council is forced to approve the development of sites they may otherwise deem unsuitable in order to meet housing targets.

“The developers have got far, far too much control,” Cllr Moseley said, “and they will only develop when they can see the profit”.

Members of the public also spoke out against such a big decision concerning the town’s future being in the hands of the Forest Council.

One person commented that Newent was only included as part of the district in the first place to “make up the numbers”.

They said: “Newent is a very long way from Coleford geographically, culturally, socially and economically, do you think our town can ever be more than an afterthought to the administration there?”

Another questioned whether signing a petition against the planning application, which now has more than 2,000 signatures, was “a waste of time”, in terms of the likelihood of getting decision makers at the council to listen.

Campaigner Clare Stone said: “No, I don’t think it’s a waste of time, Chris and I and Gill sat in this room actually last year in a meeting with the then leader of the Forest of Dean District Council (Tim Gwilliam) discussing planning, and he said to us that they at the Forest Council assumed that we in Newent were happy with the way things were developing in the town because we never told them any different.

“So I think that the thing that a petition with 2,000 signatures and growing does is tells them ‘no, we’re not happy’.”

Another person said that while Cllr Moseley’s explanations were all well and good, many had come to the meeting to find out “what we can actually do to stop this building?”

Clare responded: “Keep doing what you’re doing, turning up at the meetings - there are towns and villages all across the country who have turned back major developments when the planning system has failed them, because the residents were basically just so stroppy.”

She explained that elsewhere, residents had “marched, placarded and got lots of local media coverage” to make themselves heard.

“You make it so that it looks like it’s going to be difficult for the developer to build an attractive development here”, she added.

She said the second thing to do is to look in detail at the application itself.

“The town council are actually employing a planning specialist to pick apart the application and look at how that sits within the national planning framework.

“For me - sustainability, which is one of the first points in the framework - how can you call 375 commuter homes on the junction of two B roads with very few jobs and no public transport ‘sustainable’ when they’re sitting on acres of productive agricultural land?”

She said after identifying issues with the application, such as the impact on things like traffic, protected trees and wildlife, the next thing to do is gather evidence.

“But that’s what we do, we strop, and we keep stropping, vigorously.”

Future Newent are set to meet with Forest MP Mark Harper, who was invited to the meeting but could not attend.