The green belt review has now been published.
Its good news for land around Leckhampton but bad news for land around Swindon Village to the NW of Cheltenham.
Areas have been rated on their value for green belt purposes. With Red meaning are large contribution to green belt objectives and Green meaning little contributions. It looks like Green=Development (although the report does stress further consideration is required). The NW of Cheltenham gets the green light.
Summary of Green Belt Review
There is an excuse that ‘the north side of the Tewkesbury Road is ribbon development’ reducing the openness of the Green Belt’. This is nonsense, it has little impact on the miles of open fields. There has been no consideration on the land value in relation to needed farmland or flood prevention. It all very depressing.
See the Glos Echo Article.
The full document is available from Here
October 19, 2011 at 2:06 pm
Previously the government wanted to “build build build” over our green
fields with its Regional Spatial Strategies.
Now with the Joint Core Strategy we see that the local authorities want to do almost exactly the same thing. Has anything been learnt in all the years of campaining and consultations?
The RSS based its population projections on 3.2% economic growth for
20 years. Are we seeing this now? No
Steeply rising fuel costs will mean we need to grow more local food.
Are we preserving our farmland? No
Massive losses of biodiversity and an environment under threat. Are we
preserving it? No
Increased risks of flooding. Are we addressing this? No
Will the government protect the green belt as its promised? No
The situation with our economy and the environment has changed markedly yet the policies are still the same – unsustainable house building, urban sprawl, increased car use, destruction of the countryside and the pursuit of economic growth at any cost.