IT is unfortunate that last month my photograph appeared beside a letter, not from myself, about the New Homes Bonus.

The letter was littered with inaccuracies and I was slightly perturbed that this was then associated with me.

NHB is cash allocated from the Government as an incentive for us to welcome new housing.

There is no legislative requirement on how councils use this bonus and we allocated £87,000 of the New Homes Bonus fund for communities affected by the housing growth. This was to make improvements that address the impact of that growth.

That is the fact of the matter, which is only a small part of all the things we have dealt with as a council.

I am particularly proud of the Better Bromsgrove campaign as we are seeing things come to fruition, like the High Street, the blue-light centre. There are plenty of things on the horizon, including Parkside, and we are soon set to seal the deal on the Stourbridge Road site.

We have had disappointments, like Opus dropping out last year from the market hall site, but I look forward to working with the new preferred local developer, Hinton’s, and making this area the jewel in our crown.

More recently Sainsbury’s has pulled out too but I am excited about working with them as we talk to a list of major retailers which includes household names.

Looking out to the rest of the district we are set to launch our Better Bromsgrove consultation and we want to hear from ALL residents so please look out for it in Together Bromsgrove, on our website and social media, #betterbromsgrove

Margaret Sherrey, Leader, Bromsgrove District Council