Letter: The Local Plan Protected Our Green Belt

Published on: 4 Apr, 2021
Updated on: 4 Apr, 2021

From: Paul Spooner

In response to a comment on the letter: The A3 Issue Means We Must Review the Local Plan

Julian Cranwell calls Guildford’s Local Plan highly flawed, yet it is now clear that it protected 90%+ of green belt and actually restrained numbers whilst tying in infrastructure to support planned and shaped development. And rather importantly, in a legal and sound way.

Mr Cranwell and others consistently stated that the plan was not legal and would be found out, first by the Planning Inspectorate and second by his actions in the judicial system. He was wrong on both counts.

The new GBC administration has not come up with any alternative that is better. Perhaps Mr Cranwell should be asking them why they made so many promises to fool the electorate and are now reluctant to change because it is risky to review and deliver on their promises without the numbers going up and more green belt being lost.

It is time that Mr Cranwell looks forward and not backwards and recognises the protections in place were legal, compliant with planning policy, NPPF (National Planning Policy Framework) and yet provide for review for proper reasons, should that become necessary.

Responses to Letter: The Local Plan Protected Our Green Belt

John Perkins Reply

April 4, 2021 at 3:39 pm

It takes a twisted kind of logic to claim that disposing of 10% of the green belt equates to “saving” 90%. Only a politician could employ such sophistry. The obvious riposte is to ask who was it threatening 100%?

Nor should Cllr Spooner’s narrow definition of “legal” be given much credence. All boxes were ticked. Big deal.

How many years did his administration take to produce the Plan and make it lawyer-proof, despite having an absolute majority? How much was spent on external consultants?

Yet now he accuses the new R4GV-led administration of failing to come up with an alternative after only six months, with no overall majority and during a pandemic.

Mr Spooner’s threat that a review risks housing numbers going up is entirely empty, given how overloaded those used in the current Plan were.
Jules Cranwell Reply

April 5, 2021 at 7:12 am

So, by sacrificing a massive 46% of all green belt sacrificed by councils in the UK, Cllr Spooner was “protecting” our it.

Seriously, this pre-election desperation is fooling nobody.

As to losing any more green belt, we in the villages robbed of our green belt status, have nothing more to lose. We have no green belt left.
- Paul Spooner Reply
  
  April 5, 2021 at 6:01 pm
  
  Mr Cranwell’s comment is, again, misleading. The statistic he quotes is from a short period of time when the plan was adopted. Unlike many other areas, we are fortunate to have a lot of green belt in our borough both before and after adoption of the Local Plan.
  
  I can confidently predict that the 2020-21 green belt figures will show Guildford at the lowest quartile, across the country.
  
  The problem with statistics is that they can be presented in multiple ways.
  
  Paul Spooner is the Conservative borough councillor for South Ash & Tongham
David Roberts Reply

April 6, 2021 at 11:13 am

Mr Cranwell’s statistic is merely quoting the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s own figures.

The fallacy in the letter is that there exists some percentage of green belt the irreversible loss of which is somehow “acceptable”.

Would we accept a percentage sacrifice of other irreplaceable heritage – national museum artefacts, say, or public beaches or stately homes?

The green belt is a binding, multi-generational covenant enshrined in primary legislation to protect a permanent public good that is our children’s and grandchildren’s birthright. It is not a plaything for passing politicians and their pals in the property industry to chip away at in response to some fictitious housing “crisis”. That is the whole reason it exists and why Parliament has never repealed its creation.
Jules Cranwell Reply

April 7, 2021 at 10:36 am

Perhaps Spooner would enlighten us with the source of his claim? If not, I believe it is he who is trying to mislead, in a desperate attempt to again sway voters.

Didn’t the “Conservatives Say Greenbelt to Stay” headline in 2015 Tory election material mislead voters?