Green Belt No More!

[nightshade]

The new crisis for the countryside will be the new plan to build on the green belt
These corridors between town and city used by our already pressured wildlife
are to be whittled away to provide housing and profit for many undeserving people

[StuartDH]

We're currently finding that a lot of the very large victorian houses/estates in our village are being knocked down to make way for 20 or 30 high-spec modern apartments and so there's a lot of local protest about losing some of the grand old buildings.

Quite regularly when I walk into the village I find someone asking me to help petition the local council to stop the development, but the fact is, if the developers can't do it here, they'll just start adding pressure on the green belt that starts about 100m away.

Over the past few years we've seen a big trend locally with many people just extending their house, rather than move to somewhere larger/new. That said, I think it's inevitable that we're going to lose more countryside around here within the next 10/20 years as they've already passed the permission to develop a ring road that will be virtually surrounded by green fields.

[Wild Woolwell]

if you really feel strongly about these issues now really is the time to get involved - all local authorities in England at least - not 100% certain about Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are having to adapt to the new Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 which means that they have to review all local plans / land allocation etc etc to produce a Local Devlopment Framework (LDF) and these have to be examined with sustainability and local community involvement demonstrably at the heart - and they are having to do it now , and over the next year or so . your local authority will be drawing up the plans or Preferred Options for discussion at this moment . It is easy to be cynical - but unless people on the ground really get involved we have only ourselves to blame - there is a deal of good thinking in the legislation about highly localised plans as part of the overall picture - down to parish and village level .

There is an opportunity for real local participation rather than consultation and reaction - so now's your chance.