Campaigners fight Kidderminster's green belt pitch plan
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- Friends of Burlish Meadow has been formed to oppose Kidderminster Harriers' plan to develop 8.5 hectares within Burlish Meadows, a 40-hectare country park near Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire.
- Co-founder Jason Kernohan identified Burlish Meadows as an acid grassland hosting the white letter hairstreak butterfly and tower mustard, a plant found at fewer than 30 sites across Britain.
- Kernohan said he supports more pitches but urged the club to use a brownfield site instead, arguing the Meadows function as a vital 'green lung' for wildlife and recreation.
- Harriers owner Richard Lane defended the proposal, saying four full-size pitches (three artificial) and two junior pitches would have a 'lasting impact' on the community and youth sport, and would not affect the adjoining Burlish Top Nature Reserve.
- Matthew Terry of the Friends countered that 'nature doesn't know the difference' between Burlish Meadows and Burlish Top, and noted the Meadows were converted from a golf course into a conservation area by Wyre Forest District Council in 2018 to relieve overuse of Burlish Top.
- Terry also flagged the site as one of the few flat outdoor spaces in the area accessible to people with limited mobility — an angle the club–vs–wildlife framing tends to overlook.
- Wyre Forest District Council cabinet member David Ross confirmed no decision has been made, with the matter due before cabinet on Thursday.
Why it matters: Wyre Forest councillors will decide Thursday whether to sell part of a conservation-area country park to a football club, a trade-off between expanding youth sports access and losing documented rare-species habitat — including a plant with under 30 British sites and the only flat, accessible green space for mobility-limited residents in the area.
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