Letter: Council Should Review the Local Plan in the Light of New Government Policy

Published on: 3 Aug, 2020
Updated on: 3 Aug, 2020

From Jules Cranwell

The government has announced a new policy to speed up house building in areas designated for “renewal”. This means brownfield, so badly ignored by GBC’s Tories in their dreadful Local Plan.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53625960

It includes the statement: “Areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) and the green belt will be protected.”

Given the impact of the Covid crisis and that we are living in a “new normal”, these developments give GBC the opportunity to review the Local Plan, to ensure it is compatible with the new policies.

I challenge the council to do so.

Hopefully, the reinstatement of green belt status to the 13 villages can be included, so that the promised green belt protection can be maintained.

Responses to Letter: Council Should Review the Local Plan in the Light of New Government Policy

Lisa Wright Reply

August 3, 2020 at 1:07 pm

I don’t believe that anyone at GBC, councillors or officers have enough of a backbone to challenge the big, deep-pocketed developers which is why they pushed through a very damaging Local Plan in the first place.

Let’s face it, GBC never confronts anything that’s a bit difficult, look at the fiasco with a previous councillor cleared of wrongdoing and then convicted at the Old Bailey, or the proposed sale of the museum, and now the pay off of a director.

I look forward to someone proving me wrong.
- Ben Paton Reply
  
  August 4, 2020 at 10:06 am
  
  It’s worse than lack of backbone; it’s lack of intellectual honesty.
  
  The local council suffers endemic ‘agnotology’ – deliberate ignorance and doubt. It deliberately ignores all the inconvenient evidence. A glaring example comes right from the top when the deputy leader of the Conservative group, the former councillor Monika Juneja was absolved of concocting a false curriculum vitae. But more important is the lasting legacy of the Local Plan. The council ignored its complete dependence on the A3 and its chronic unsustainability.
  
  Now, irony of ironies, we have a lead councillor for the Environment (supported by Cllr Potter) who accuses the public of agnotology where Britain’s colonial past is concerned but ignores all the much more serious present local issues about which the councils could do more about: car dependence, environmental destruction, dependence on the mega national housebuilders, a growing population of children in council ‘care’ and so on.
Jim Allen Reply

August 4, 2020 at 8:35 pm

Sadly any review will not return our lost green belt as the loss was voted into law and thus would require the full process of a new Local Plan to reinstate, not just a review. Another 15 years with the lost areas in danger of development for all that time.
- Jules Cranwell Reply
  
  August 5, 2020 at 6:12 pm
  
  I am afraid I can’t agree with Jim Allen. The new central government policy requires such a review, in order to protect the green belt, as stated. This can only be done by removing the “insetting” of green belt villages.
  
  After all, these villages could not be taken out of the green belt per se, only inset, which can now be reversed to meet the new policy. The same goes for AONB, such as Blackwell Farm.