Campaigners fight Kidderminster Harriers green belt plan
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- Friends of Burlish Meadow has formed to oppose Kidderminster Harriers' plan to buy and develop 8.5 hectares of Burlish Meadows, a 40-hectare country park near Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire.
- Kidderminster Harriers' proposal includes four full-size pitches — three of them artificial — and two junior pitches; owner Richard Lane said the new pitches would have a "lasting impact" on the community.
- Co-founder Jason Kernohan said Burlish is acid grassland, a rare Worcestershire habitat that hosts the white letter hairstreak butterfly and tower mustard, a plant found at fewer than 30 sites across the whole of Britain.
- Kernohan said he supports more pitches but argued a brownfield site would be more suitable, noting Wyre Forest District Council took Burlish over in 2018 and converted it from a golf course into a conservation area.
- Fellow campaigner Matthew Terry said nature doesn't distinguish between Burlish Meadows and the adjoining Burlish Top Nature Reserve — which Lane said the development would not affect — and that the Meadows were meant to relieve overuse pressure on the Top.
- David Ross, Wyre Forest District Council's cabinet member for finance and the capital portfolio, said no decision has been made and the matter is due to be considered by cabinet on Thursday.
Why it matters: Wyre Forest District Council's cabinet vote on Thursday will decide whether 8.5 hectares of conservation land — reclassified from a former golf course in 2018 — is sold to a non-league club, with campaigners citing rare species like tower mustard. If approved, the club gains room to expand its youth academy; if rejected, the group has already signalled it will press for a brownfield alternative.
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