Plans to build thousands of homes on Bristol Green Belt land put on hold

In response to the High Court ruling, the director of the Government Office for the South West, John Bright, has written to local authorities across the region notifying town halls that the strategy has “failed to meet certain requirements of the EU strategic environmental assessment directive”. Civil servants are now believed to be reviewing the implications of the High Court ruling for the South West region, but are awaiting written judgement from the High Court before making a statement.

Thousands of letters have already been received by the government from residents concerned at the likely imposition of some 117,000 new homes planned for Bristol, South Gloucestershire, North Somerset and Bath and North East Somerset. Of these, some 8000 are to be built in the area around Siston according to the website of the Save Warmley & Siston Green Spaces group.

Ron Morton of the Shortwood Green Belt Campaign stated in a press release:

“This delay makes it virtually certain that the South West RSS cannot be carried through before the next general election falls due.”

However, he also warned against complacency, identifying North Somerset’s Conservative administration as a probable motivating force behind the plan to build in Ashton Vale in order to pay for a new Bristol City stadium. According to the Shortwood website, 33,000 homes are planned for the area between Shortwood and Oldland Common.

In and around Long Ashton, a further 10,000 homes are planned, according to campaign group ‘Hands Off Long Ashton’. In an email communication on Friday, Jacquie Stevens, Chair of the Siston & Warmley Green Belt Group, said:

“The successful legal challenge by the East of England forcing the RSS to postpone indefinitely the publication of the final version of the Regional Spatial Strategy has been for us a momentous success. We have been celebrating for a week now!!!”
She stressed, however, that this was not the time to relax:

“….we will continue our very successful campaign to protect our precious greenbelt.  At the present time we have over thousands of signed letters that are ready to be sent to John Denham reaffirming Save Our Green Spaces view that the green belt should be preserved not concreted over.”

It’s clear that local people in and around the green belt areas affected by government development proposals are deeply concerned about the impact on the local environment and wildlife. For now, this landscape has been given a reprieve, but community groups stand ready to resist any further pressure for development of the green belt. They invite you to join them.

Save Our Green Spaces, an umbrella organisation may be contacted by emailing saveourgreenspaces@gmail.com. Their website contains a local group menu which you can use to contact the local group appropriate to your area.

Article by Robin Whitlock