Blow for campaign to stop thousands of new homes (From Gazette Series)

Blow for campaign to stop thousands of new homes

11:21am Wednesday 8th October 2008 in News By Ali Dent

THE campaign to block plans for thousands of new homes in South Gloucestershire has been dealt a crushing blow.

MPs fighting Government recommendations for 115,000 new houses in the former Avon area, including 32,800 in South Gloucestershire, spoke on behalf of protesters during a key debate in Westminster yesterday.

Led by Northavon MP Steve Webb, politicians from across the South West spent 80 minutes cataloguing why ministers who drew up the Regional Spatial Strategy were "living in cloud cuckoo land".

But their pleas for a 'sequential test' to prevent developers cherry picking green belt housing hot spots fell on deaf ears.

Mr Webb had called for Government ministers to impose limits, whereby developers would have to build on brownfield sites before touching the green belt.

However, Iain Wright MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Communities, said a sequential test would be "rigid and old fashioned".

He added: "I do not think a sequential test is the right approach. We want to be as flexible as possible. The important test is whether a site is suitable for development.

"Part of that test is whether it is in the green belt. This government is committed to keeping the green belt, from the Prime Minister down."

Mr Webb told the Gazette: "I am shocked, we all assumed the green belt would be saved.

"The green belt is now fair game and developers will be rubbing their hands with glee."

Mr Webb made a passionate appeal to stop the proposals in their tracks.

He told politicians South Gloucestershire’s roads could not cope with thousands more homes and added that hospitals, schools and doctors’ surgeries were already full to capacity.

"The M4, M5 and A38 are already gridlocked and the roads in and out of Yate cannot be widened without knocking down houses.

"Trains between Yate and Bristol can only fit 140 commuters and buses are infrequent and unreliable.

"We are told we will get new schools and playing fields with these houses but a lot of development will be on playing fields.

"The playing fields in Chipping Sodbury are used by more than 500 local kids. People need green spaces – it would be criminal to get rid of them."

He was supported by fellow South West MPs, including North Somerset MP Dr Liam Fox.

He said: "We accept people need places to live but we cannot continue to stuff more houses in the same areas."