Plans for a controversial housing scheme in an upmarket Birmingham suburb have been scaled down after council officers said the size of the development was not acceptable.
Redrow is trying to secure permission to build on the former Ravenhurst Playing Fields, in Harborne, but campaigners are still attempting to block the plan until sport and recreation provision is included in the designs.
The Post reported in September that Redrow had lodged plans for 121 houses and apartments, including 32 social housing and ten for key workers such as teachers and nurses, with the estate ranging from one to four bedrooms.
But the bid by the Flintshire-based company, owned by Wolverhampton Wanderers chairman Steve Morgan, was sent back to the drawing board, meaning it has now lodged revised plans to build 103 two-, three- and four-bedroom units.
The project would include terraced, semi-detached and detached dwellings and 24 of the units would be social housing but the apartments and housing for key workers have both been removed.
Birmingham City Council said the three-storey apartment blocks, 2.5-storey dwellings and the mix of affordable units were not suitable in the original plans.
The 2.5-storey units have now been replaced with two-storey alternatives.
Developers have been eyeing the 11-acre site, between Knightlow Road and Gilhurst Road, for more than a decade and Wimpey was behind a previous scheme.
Action group Friends of Ravenhurst Playing Fields was formed in 2005 to campaign for its preservation for recreation and community uses and has gathered more than 340 signatures on a petition following submission of Redrow's revised proposals.
The group accepts development of the site in some form is inevitable but remains adamant that recreation and sporting facilities should be included.
It is also concerned over protected badgers, the risk of flooding and availability of school places.
The Ravenhurst site is owned by the Oratory, the Catholic church on the Hagley Road in Edgbaston, which previously said it needed to raise funds from the land sale to continue its charitable work.
The petition, which has received support from as far afield as New Zealand and California, said: "Harborne has many sports clubs (but) because of the lack of playing fields in the area, most activities take place away and involve extra travel and inconvenience.
"While the site has not been used for some 11 years, it is not through a lack of trying by many sports organisations.
"Although (it) is privately owned, it is still registered as a playing field with the council....the Friends feel it is their duty to let the council be aware of the urgent need to use the fields for sport. Once they are lost, they are lost forever."
A spokesperson for Redrow said: "Following feedback from officers at Birmingham City Council, we've submitted revised plans for our proposed Harborne development.
"We've reduced the overall number of homes to 103 and have removed three-storey designs from our plans.
"At the request of council officials, we've included 24 social housing units which are larger than originally planned. These would be offered as a mix of shared ownership and rental properties."
