Further to my recent article on the former Blakedown nurseries site in Belbroughton Road. I picked up last week's Shuttle only to read that the village of Chaddesley Corbett is to have more control over future development in its parish after being designated a "neighbourhood area" by Wyre Forest District Council. This apparently gives a Parish Council and its residents a passport into the new localism agenda once their neighbourhood plan is finally adopted.

Blakedown and Churchill Parish Council had/has a Parish Plan firmly in place, drawn up by members of the community in conjunction with representatives of its Parish Council. It is my understanding that this plan was also adopted by Wyre Forest District Council. Yet, in respect of the planning permission granted recently for 42 homes on the Belbroughton Road site, our Parish Plan was ignored and deemed irrelevant.

Planning chief, Stephen Williams has defended the planning committee's decision saying, it was based on local and national planning policy and is subject to the signing of a Section 106 agreement.

I can reveal that the Section 106 agreement should be somewhere in the region of £31,962. I trust our Parish Councillors will spend it wisely on behalf of all Blakedown and Churchill residents. Preferably, not before a full consultation with its residents, in order to initiate us fully into the ranks of localism too.