Letter: The Local Plan JRs Are Aimed at Green Belt Protection

Published on: 28 Jun, 2019
Updated on: 28 Jun, 2019

From Michael Bruton

In response to: I Hope Councillors Examine Their Conscience’s Before Opposing Local Plan JRs

The Conservative Party nationally only pretends to support protection of the UK’s countryside and green belts from needless development. Since 2010 permission for 400,000 homes has been given in our green belts in the UK. And the Tory government has turned a blind eye to it all. Green belts were set up around our major cities from the 1930s to prevent urban sprawl and to give residents of those cities a green lung nearby. So goodbye to all that.

And what for example has PM contender Jeremy Hunt done to.protect his constituency covering large parts of Waverley Borough from the advance of the bulldozer? What indeed has the MP for Guildford, Anne Milton, done to protect Guildford’s green belt and its taxpayers over the various shenanigans in recent years? I guess she does not read Private Eye and its Rotten Boroughs column?

The three pending applications for Judicial Reviews v GBC are aimed at protecting our glorious countryside from needless development – and to provide that countryside for all to enjoy and in the long term. Mr Cranwell’s application is courageous and covers the whole Local Plan. And has received widespread support from individual council taxpayer’s across the Borough.

Developers, of course, relish the Guildford Conservative Local Plan. Building expensive executive homes on green fields is very lucrative. And the new Lib Dem GBC seems happy to do the Tory’s bidding? I do wonder though how the Lib Dem councillors for Burpham feel about a potential massive development at Gosden Hill, in their ward. Happy?

Anyone using the A3 and any of Guildford’s roads knows how jammed they become and how pollution from traffic will be blighting the lives of those living nearby. Air and road pollution and an overwhelmed infrastructure should concern us all mightily. But maybe not the Lib Dems.

I wish all three JR applications success. Because if Guildford’s unique green belt and countryside and its villages are trashed – thanks mainly to the Tories – then it’s gone forever.

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