A GREEN site in Leagrave is under threat as the council plans to build housing on it, prompting protests from angry residents.
The Ickley Close/Butely Road land is set to hold 56 homes of which 13 will be social housing, but residents are hoping their campaign to see the land recognised as a village green will prevent this.
At a Leagrave Ward meeting attended by more than 60 residents in March, Councillor Tom Shaw said around 400 Luton families live in temporary accommodation and the planned development would help provide them with permanent homes.
Chairman of Luton Conservative Association John Young said: “We are campaigning against this plan with a petition, which has around 300 names so far, and by seeking to have the land adopted as a village green.
“Luton is one of three urban areas with the least amount of green spaces.
“We have brown fields in and around Luton and it seems ridiculous to have all these brown sites and then go and build on green fields. I loathe to see small bits of green built on because they won’t sort something else out.
“We all appreciate the need for social and low cost housing but we shouldn’t lose valuable green land when there is brown available.”
A Luton Borough Council spokesperson said this land is ‘open space’, not Green Belt land. The planning application is at consultation stage with comments invited from interested parties.
The plan is to lease the land to Catalyst Housing Group for 999 years, and Catalyst will fund the development.
Any profit from house sales will be used to provide more housing in Luton and elsewhere.
Councillor Shaw said: “Most of the brownfield sites in Luton are not owned by the council and because of the lack of government funding, we can’t afford to buy them to develop them, therefore using council land is about the only way to provide new affordable housing.
“The plans for the site would see more than half of the open space retained with considerable improvements to make it more accessible and safer for local people.”
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