Candidates representing North Staffs Green Party in the county council elections have called for a former local golf course to be protected from development.
Keele Golf Course has been closed several years ago and is, potentially, a site where new housing could be built, people living in the area have expressed concern about this.
A spokesperson for North Staffs Green Party said, “the importance of access to green space for the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities is something we have all come to appreciate over the past year”.
Adding that, “the land formerly used as Keele Golf Course is a space the whole community should be able to enjoy, there are brownfield sites that should be developed instead to meet local housing needs”.
Green Party candidate for Keele, Knutton and Silverdale Nikki Brough said, “local people are rightly concerned about the impact building on the former golf course will have on a space that for many people during lockdown has been somewhere they have been able to exercise and relax safely. We are committed to working with the community to protect this and other green places”.
Steve Jones, candidate for Newcastle Rural ward said “Saving Keele Golf Course from housing developers is also something I am passionate about”. He added that there was a growing need to “save our green spaces from the housing developers” and to instead “improve the housing stock we already have”.
In her election address party Coordinator and candidate for the nearby Westlands and Thistleberry ward Jade Taylor said that protecting communities against the threat of ‘losing local green spaces like Keele Golf Course’ was a priority issue.
Over the past year North Staffs Green Party have played a leading role in campaigning to protect the unique natural habitat of Cannock Chase and supported residents living with the ‘stink’ from Walley’s Quarry.
The party also recently announced that it would be supporting the Campaign for Rural England in calling for greater investment in rural bus services.