Opinion
Featured in various local newspapers, May 2010:
Dear Editor,
The confirmation that the new Government is planning to scrap the previous Government’s ridiculous house-buildings targets will come as extremely good news to all of us campaigning to protect our area’s Greenbelt land.
The Whitehall-dictated targets put in place under the Labour Government appeared to take no account of local needs and did not listen to the views of local people. They dictated a massive and unsustainable number of new houses for our area, and allowed practically no scope for the local council to decide upon locations.
Conservative Councillors in Bath and North East Somerset have supported calls for these central targets to be scrapped from day one, and we hope that the new Government acts to do this as quickly as possible.
B&NES Council has always rejected the huge 21,300 figure the Labour Government was trying to impose on our area, but it is also clear that even the lower figure of 15,500 which the Government originally suggested and which the Council had been working on is still very challenging. Even at this lower figure, Greenbelt land in our area would still be put at risk, including land on the outskirts of Whitchurch and near Newton St Loe.
Given the fact that the recession meant construction and new house-building practically ground to a halt, it appears clear that building this many new houses is not realistic. Local Conservatives therefore believe that when the central government targets are scrapped, the Council should reduce the number of new houses to a more sustainable level that meets the needs of our area but which would not mean bulldozing swathes of Greenbelt.
Deciding upon the exact figure will of course need to be considered carefully, with the responses to the Council’s recent consultation on its Core Strategy forming a central part of the decision, but we now have a new opportunity to set realistic house-building goals for our area that takes account of the views of local people.
Yours faithfully,
Cllr Vic Clarke,
Conservative, Bathavon West