2009 CRUNCH YEAR FOR CHELTENHAM'S COUNTRYSIDE, SAYS MARTIN (Cheltenham Liberal Democrats)

Cheltenham Liberal Democrats <info@cheltlibdems.org.uk>

2009 CRUNCH YEAR FOR CHELTENHAM'S COUNTRYSIDE, SAYS MARTIN

January 5, 2009 2:44 PM

CHELTENHAM MP Martin Horwood is starting the new year by stepping up his campaign against nationally-imposed housing targets that are threatening countryside around Cheltenham. He has obtained a meeting in Parliament with Communities & Local Government minister Iain Wright MP on 21 January and is hoping for a strong showing from across the south-west region and across the political spectrum.

A small number of MPs and constituents will meet Mr Wright - Tewkesbury Tory MP Laurence Robertson and Stroud Labour MP David Drew are included - but Martin is hoping for a strong showing from members of the public at a larger meeting in Parliament at the same time. The MPs will then be able to report back from the ministerial meeting. Martin will be inviting Cheltenham's Save the Countryside campaign, the Leckhampton Green Land Action Group and Gloucestershire Campaign to Protect Rural England to join the MPs in Parliament. Members of the public interested in coming should contact these groups or Martin's office.

Martin said 'The Regional Spatial Strategy is based on outdated growth forecasts, a housing bubble that has long since burst and numbers for Cheltenham that go way beyond actual housing need. It poses a real and immediate threat to the future of the countryside around Cheltenham by handing over large swathes of green space to the developers. This won't help the dying rural communities or the urban areas that need regeneration. And it certainly won't help Cheltenham. We need new homes but 7,500 are already planned for the urban area and the priority should be on making sure a good proportion of those are available to people who are stuck on the housing waiting list. Building all over the countryside as well will just hand more profits to the developers and do irretrievable damage to our local environment.'

'I have already made repeated submissions to the regional policymaking process and raised the issue again and again in parliamentary debates. But the Regional Spatial Strategy is now firmly back in the government's in-tray, along with a staggering 35,000 objections from all over the south-west of England. Two-thirds of the regions MPs are openly opposing from across the political spectrum. But it seems that government still hasn't got the message. On 21 January we need to give it to them loud and clear'.