Residents fighting a proposal to build 39 houses on land known as the sheep fields in West Kirby are to speak at a hearing which will determine whether or not the scheme can go-ahead.
The application for the land on Grange Road was rejected by council planners earlier this year, who concluded it “would form a visually obtrusive feature within the streetscene which would impact on existing open views on to and across the site, as well as existing views onto the estuary and beyond”.
But the trustees of Greenfield Estate on Grange Road lodged an appeal, which will be heard by an independent planning inspector for four days, starting at 10am on Tuesday 8 August at Birkenhead Town Hall.
The site was originally earmarked for housing in the council’s draft Local Plan, but was removed in the final version and designated as green open space instead, protecting it from development. However, the plan is still going through the approval process and has not yet been formally adopted by the council.
Save the Sheep Fields campaigner Peter Fitzgerald told West Kirby Today: “We are speaking at the hearing to make the residents’ case: the character of the entry to West Kirby will be lost forever, given away for another anonymous development trying to extract maximum profit ahead of the considerations of local place and people.”
He is urging members of the public to attend and make their views known, arguing that the site is an “historic and irreplaceable entry to West Kirby and across the estuary to the Welsh Hills”, and will lead to additional traffic on the hill.
People can also email leanne.palmer@planninginspectorate.gov.uk with their views, quoting the appeal number, APP/W4325/W/23/3318758.
The inquiry will be live streamed on the Council’s website at https://wirral.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/796893