What’s new: Staffordshire Moorlands District Council has abandoned its partial Local Plan review and will instead carry out a full review.
By the numbers: The district’s housing target has increased from 320 to 501 homes a year, while the abandoned proposals included around 3,000 homes along the A50 growth corridor.
What’s next: The council says it will publish a timetable for the full review, which must be completed within 30 months.
This article is based on reporting from the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), a BBC funded initiative set up to strengthen reporting on local democratic issues. The Staffordshire Signal has taken part in the scheme since September 2026, which means we're able to draw on a selection of LDRS stories alongside our own.
A council has abandoned a partial review of its planning blueprint after major concerns were raised over the process.
Staffordshire Moorlands District Council was aiming to complete the partial review of its local plan – to address increased housing targets – before the authority’s abolition under local government reorganisation.
The revised plan did not include new site allocations, but instead proposed that the increased housing target could be met by building around 3,000 homes along the A50 growth corridor, in the Blythe Bridge and Forsbrook areas.
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But during a consultation a number of ‘fundamental’ questions were raised over the council’s approach and the lack of supporting evidence.
Developers argued that revised plan needed new site allocations, claiming that the A50 growth corridor would not deliver enough homes during the plan period.
Council officials say it will not be possible to address these issues in the time allotted for the partial review – potentially resulting in an ‘unsound’ plan.
Councillors have now voted to stop work on the partial review, so that a full review of the local plan can be carried out instead.
Darren Price, portfolio holder for regeneration and planning, told a council assembly meeting that only £400 had been spent on the partial review so far, and that the work already carried out would feed into the full review.
Cllr Price said: “A positive spin on this is that a full review will carry far more weight in planning terms, and will be able to effect far more change to our region in a way that this council can control.
“At the moment we don’t have a five year supply of housing land, so we are effectively open to developers. This isn’t going to immediately change that, but we need to start a chain of events that allows us to have control of our planning system. We believe passionately in democratic plan-led development, not development by appeal.”
Council leaders originally opted against a full review, as it would not have been possible to complete it before the council’s abolition.
But LGR has been paused by the government following legal challenges by several councils across the country.
The council assembly was told that the district council could still face abolition prior to the completion of the local plan review – in which case the successor authority would take over the process.
Unlike the partial review, the full review will consider new and existing site allocations for homes and employment land across the Moorlands.
These allocations will need to meet the district’s new housing target of 501 homes a year – up from 320 a year previously.
Councillors backed the decision to go for a full review – with several saying they had serious concerns over the proposal to allocate thousands of homes to the A50 growth corridor.
Councillor Pete Wilkinson, who chairs the planning committee, said: “My support for the full review must not be interpreted as support for the proposed A50 growth corridor. That was in the partial review, but going forward, I want the policy proposing 3,000 homes around Blythe Bridge and Forsbrook to be taken out.
“The proposed growth corridor has no clearly defined boundary. At the moment we’re experiencing massive problems in the area due to the A50 closures, which is affecting communities in Tean, in Draycott and outlying villages.”
Cllr Price said that everything would be ‘on the table’ in the full review, but that any proposals for the A50 growth corridor would need to address all the issues raised by Cllr Wilkinson.
The council says it will soon publish its timetable for the full review, which will have to be completed within 30 months in line with government rules..
Written by Phil Corrigan, Local Democracy Reporter.
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