Wyre Forest District Council is consulting on a new draft character appraisal for the Bewdley Conservation Area, and it would extend the boundary to take in the rest of Maypole Piece in Wribbenhall. Comments go to the council by 5pm on Sunday 18 October.
Part of the hillside is already inside the conservation area. The draft takes in the remainder, along with the slopes and ridgeline to the north-east and south-east, because the present boundary cuts a single historic landscape in two. The council’s case is that the open hillside stands behind the views from Severn Side North and South, Load Street, Beale’s Corner and Telford’s bridge, that it is the first thing you see coming into Bewdley from the east along the Kidderminster Road, and that leaving it undeveloped keeps old Wribbenhall readable against the housing that came later. The appraisal says plainly that further building there should be resisted and the trees and hedges kept. Other open land around the town was looked at and did not make the same case.
Being in a conservation area is not a preservation order. It obliges the council to pay special attention to preserving or enhancing the area’s character when it decides planning applications, and it brings trees and demolition under tighter control. On land that has just been put up for sale, that weight matters.
The Friends of the Maypole, the group formed when the land was listed, want to buy it and hold it in a charitable trust so it stays open for good. They are collecting pledges at friendsofthemaypole.co.uk, and they are backing the boundary change too. Cllr Dan Morehead, who took the proposals to the district council’s Cabinet, has asked people who care about the town’s heritage to have their say.
The countryside around Bewdley is a part of the charm of living, working and visiting Bewdley. The draft makes a sound case for treating Maypole Piece as one landscape rather than two. If you agree, email [email protected] before 5pm on Sunday 18 October and say so. The full draft, with the map of the proposed boundary, is on the council’s website at wyreforestdc.gov.uk.
