Crucial land vote set to go ahead

The land is needed to allow the building of the relief road planned for the project, which has been given government approval despite furious local opposition.

The trust has already been criticised for deciding to hold a secret ballot on the issue and for refusing to publish the expert advice upon which the trustees will be voting.

But in a fresh intervention this week Martyn Luscombe, chairman of RASE (Residents Against Shottery Expansion), asked the trust to postpone the vote because of new information emerging from Stratford District Council.

Mr Luscombe drew attention to the fact that the council had asked developers Bloor Homes to seek a ‘scoping opinion’ on the need for a new environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the Shottery site.

Bloor Homes was seeking a legal opinion on whether an updated EIA would be required.

In a letter to Dr Diana Owen, the director of the trust, Mr Luscombe said that an EIA was prepared six years ago, but traffic levels had grown much faster than was expected at that time.

Mr Luscombe wrote: “Clearly there is a very real prospect that a new EIA will indeed be prepared in the near future.

“If so, this would provide the trustees with a much better indication of the harm that the road would actually do to Anne Hathaway’s Cottage and Garden.

“It would be perverse of the trustees to make an irreversible decision on selling the land before this information is available.

“After all, your decision surely comes down to whether the harm is justified by the money on offer. How could that decision safely be made without knowing the degree of harm?”

He said there was a possibility that a revised EIA might cause the council to refuse full planning permission and asked the trust to delay the vote until there was more clarity from Bloor Homes and the council.

But a trust spokeswoman told the Herald earlier this week: “The trust has taken advice on this matter and trustees will be fully briefed at the meeting on Saturday.”