MOORPOOL ALLOTMENTS TO GO AS 30 HOUSES PLANNED

11-05-2007

Residents on Birmingham’s historic Moorpool Estate have responded with anger to plans by a developer to eject allotment holders and build up to 30 new houses.

Moorpool, a distinctive early 20th century model village in Harborne has been under threat for some time, but The Stirrer can reveal that er, concrete proposals have now been made public for the first time.

Tim Nicholson from the Oxford based property company Grainger PLC says: “We propose to develop some new appropriate family housing” and admits that “it is true that if our proposals go ahead we will need to relocate a limited number of allotments”.

The company argues that the money raised will help secure the future of the estate, and has also offered to hand over the bowling green,the "village hall" and the remaining allotments to aCommunity Trust.

Campaigner and local resident Alastair Moyes is unimpressed: “It’s not the answer to the estate’s problems and the estate’s future. Building more houses and taking away allotments just ensures that Grainger will make a big profit.”

Moorpool was previously owned by a Trust until financial problems forced it to sell out to Grainger.

There will be public presentations of the new plans in Moorpool Hall on May 20th at 11.30am 3pm.

Stirrer blogger Steve Beauchampe “discovered” Moorpool when he was writing his book “Played In Birmingham” - you can see his potted history of this distinctive pub-free area here see link here

And you can find out more about Grainger’s plans and the campaign to save Moorpool here http://savethemoorpoolestate.blogspot.com/