DUDLEY has pulled out of a regional plan to identify housing and employment land, with council bosses vowing to “listen to local people” on the fate of the borough's green belt land.

Dudley Council leader, Councillor Patrick Harley, has said the council will draw up its own plan after cutting ties with the Black Country Plan.

Earlier this year, almost 20,800 people across the Black Country responded to consultation on the plan in the form of individuals, organisations and group responses and a further 18,000 people signed petitions. The vast majority were from Dudley.

Following the feedback, Dudley's leaders have  said they would pull two sites from the plan – land south of Holbeach Lane, Kingswinford, and land in Swindon Road, Wall Heath.

But after the Black Country authorities failed to agree on how the plan would progress, Councillor Patrick Harley said he could not allow the “overwhelming” public feedbac to be ignored and therefore would be recommending to Dudley Council’s cabinet that the authority should withdraw and draw up its own plan.

Cllr Harley said: "I simply cannot stand by and allow decisions to be made which are contrary to the overwhelming feedback we have already received.

"This is clearly a very emotive subject and people feel very strongly about it. I must reflect that in the decisions I make for the people of this borough.

"We will therefore look to go it alone and look at what is needed to support a Dudley specific plan and setting out the timescales for that."

He said a lot of the work carried out to date was "still very relevant" so it woudln't be a case of starting from scratch and he added: "We will listen to local people and put them first at every stage of this plan."

Further details will be announced at a later date.