Important Message from the Lickey Hills Society

Threat by the owners of 18 Rose Hill, Lickey to lay claim to the adjoining piece of land in the Lickey Hills Country Park.
Brief history:the plot belonged to the Birmingham Diocese (18 Rose Hill is the Old Vicarage which became redundant when a new vicarage was built in Lickey Square). The area around the house was sold with a restrictive covenant – no building – as a residence. The remainder of the plot was given to the City as part of what is now the Country Park.
The site is not much walked over – it is hard to access from the road side and is really just left. But within the area part of it has been maintained over the years as a tennis court. I was not aware of this and I have lived on Rose Hill for over 40 years… So it has been well hidden from view. The rest of the land is now claimed by the owners of no18.
As stated in the letter we think that we ought to be fighting the whole claim. We realise that the City might lose, but to do less than this seems to us a gross dereliction of the City’s duty to protect land donated to the City for public use.
We would be grateful if you could publicise the issue for us – not least because the issue obviously has ramifications for other parks and open spaces owned by the City. We feel that because of the semi-detached nature of the Lickey Hills (owned by the City but mainly in Worcestershire and therefore with no City Councillors to shout loudly about it) that it is particularly vulnerable.
For more information you can contact the Lickey Hills Society

Posted on 16th October 2013