news story

14th September 2009

Green Belt Threatened as Government Jumps the Gun on Regional Housing Plan

Northavon MP Steve Webb has condemned the Government for a letter sent over the Summer by the Government Office for the South West to local councils which could lead to them having to abandon their fight to protect the Green Belt.

For several years now councils and local people have been considering a document that would set the planning framework for the whole South West up to the mid 2020s, the 'Regional Spatial Strategy' or RSS. This document has been through a series of changes and is currently with the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, John Denham. The Minister is currently considering the representations that local people made to the final draft document and was due to produce a final report in June of this year.

The final document has however been held up because of a legal challenge to the RSS for the East of England, and no date has yet been set for it to be published. However, the Government Office has now written to councillors telling them that they should give 'considerable weight' to the current RSS when considering planning applications.

This could mean that if housing developers apply to build in the Green Belt in areas that are currently protected but are listed for development in the RSS, councils may find it more difficult to block such plans.

Commenting, Steve Webb said:

"This letter is an affront to democracy. We are meant to believe that the Minister is carefully considering all the representations that we have been making to these plans to concrete over our countryside. But the truth seems to be that the Government plans to press on regardless of local opinion or legal objections. Local people have no problem with new housing to meet local need but do not want to see the loss of vital countryside simply to meet the Government's unrealistic assumptions about economic growth. Councils must stand firm against this attempt to bully them into giving the go-ahead to unsustainable housing developments".