‘Council must go back to drawing board on house-building
numbers under Conservative Government’
19/01/2010Conservative Councillors in Bath and North East Somerset have pledged to go back to the drawing board over the area’s house-building numbers and scrap plans for ‘Urban Extensions’ if a Conservative Government is elected this year.
The Conservative administration on B&NES Council has resisted attempts by the Government to impose a massive 21,300 new homes in the B&NES area over the next sixteen years as part of the Government’s much-hated ‘South West Regional Spatial Strategy’. Nationally, David Cameron has pledged to scrap the derided Regional Spatial Strategies and hand decision-making back to local authorities.
Now, local Conservatives have said that if the Regional Spatial Strategy is scrapped then the Council should go back to the drawing board over the 15,500 house-building figure it is currently working on. As no one political party has overall control of B&NES Council, the Conservatives have pledged to ask a Full Council meeting to agree a reduction in this figure to a more sustainable level if given the freedom to do so under a Conservative Government.
Leader of B&NES Conservatives, Cllr Francine Haeberling, said:
“Conservatives have supported the campaign against the Government’s massive house-building targets from the start. The centrally-imposed targets are unsustainable and would mean bulldozing swathes of Greenbelt land.
“If a Conservative Government is elected this year, then these Whitehall targets will be scrapped and powers handed back to local Councils. If this happens, we pledge to call on the Council to go back to the drawing board on the current 15,500 figure the Council is working on. We will argue for a more sustainable level of development which will meet the needs of our local area. If a lower figure is agreed, then proposals for Urban Extensions can be scrapped.”
The Conservatives have pledged to use feedback gathered from the Core Strategy Options consultation to arrive at a more sustainable and achievable level of development.
