Opinion
Various local newspapers, March 2010
Dear Editor,Wansdyke Labour MP Dan Norris recently circulated a letter to residents of Bathavon West, the ward represented by myself on B&NES Council, the contents of which I feel are highly misleading.
In the letter, Mr Norris appears to suggest that plans to build thousands of new homes near Newton St Loe in an ‘Urban Extension’ to Bath are nothing to do with his Government. In fact, as Mr Norris should know, these plans are everything to do with his Government.
The reality is that the only reason these plans exist is because of a Whitehall dictat from his Labour Government.
In the widely-ridiculed house-building document drawn up by his Government, known as the Regional Spatial Strategy, it clearly states that there should be an Urban Extension to the south west of Bath accommodating thousands of homes.
The Government Office for the South West has given a clear instruction to B&NES Council that it must begin the process of drawing up its own local Core Strategy based on the Government’s Regional Spatial Strategy. If it refused to do this, then B&NES could be open to a planning free-for-all, with no firm legal recourse against developers’ planning applications to build on Greenbelt land.
The Conservatives, both locally and nationally, have a very clear position on these plans. David Cameron has pledged that a Conservative Government would scrap these ridiculous central targets in favour of locally-driven development, and Conservative Councillors in B&NES have pledged that if this happens the Council will go back to the drawing board on the number of houses and scrap the urban extensions.
It’s clear that more affordable housing is needed in our area, and deciding upon locations is never easy. But the Government’s document gives no real scope for dispersing house-building throughout the area in smaller developments, preferring large-scale building on Greenbelt land. If we are to meet the housing needs of families in the area we therefore need an honest debate about what is appropriate and where, not these misleading comments from our Labour MP.
Cllr Vic Clarke,
Cons, Bathavon West