A LENGTHY 11 years after the houses were built in the Brockhill development, the first and largest of 11 open space areas has been adopted.

Adoption is the term applied to the process of a residential area and its infrastructure being adopted by public bodies and Local Authorities, subsequent to completion by the builders.

The first of the Persimmon development’s specific areas, each of which has to be individually adopted, Area One has been signed off and now officially comes under Local Authority jurisdiction.

The associated commuted sum of money from Persimmon will now be ploughed back into the development, as set out in the original planning agreement.

Adoption by a Local Authority is extremely important for these areas as Severn Trent Water will not take responsibility for the drainage until the adoption process has taken place.

County councillor David Thain, who has campaigned hard for Brockhill’s adoption, and attended the Persimmons Shareholders annual meeting to push the company’s chairman on the issue, said: ‘I am delighted for the residents of Brockhill – they have waited far too long for this.

“We still have to adopt another 10 areas but I hope we can now concentrate on providing the services and infrastructure that the Brockhill residents deserve.”