EXTENSION AND PROTECTION OF GREEN BELT ROUND CHELTENHAM NOW CRITICAL

11.11.44am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 12th Jul 2007

CHELTENHAM MP Martin Horwood has warned that Gordon Brown's announcement on housing yesterday poses a new threat to greenfield sites around Cheltenham.

'We already face a concentration of Gloucestershire's new housing around Cheltenham under the Regional Spatial Strategy and now Gordon Brown has announced a 20% increase in the numbers he wants built each year. He talks about brownfield sites but we cannot contain that kind of increase on sites in town so it poses a direct threat to greenfield sites like the Green Belt next to Swindon Village, Hesters Way and Hatherley and most of all to the green land next to Leckhampton which still doesn't have Green Belt protection'

'It is now urgent that Cheltenham Borough Council keeps up its opposition to the use of greenfield sites in the existing Green Belt and starts to actively call for its extension at Leckhampton'.

Martin is a Leckhampton resident himself and his father Don Horwood co-founded the Leckhampton Green Land Action Group (LEGLAG).

'This is not a party political issue, it's a Cheltenham issue. I've talked to individual Conservatives who support me on this and I know I can count on the Lib Dems. We must work together to protect Cheltenham's rural borders.'

'I'm no NIMBY. But I believe that we shouldn't just build houses where the developers will make more profit but where people really need and want them. Rural MPs are calling for more sensitive smaller developments around rural villages that are crying out for more families to go to their schools and shop in their shops. Meanwhile the West Midlands complains that putting more homes next to towns like Cheltenham will undermine their attempts at urban regeneration and counties like Cornwall actually want more housing but are being told they can't have it. Of course the developers want to build on green fields around Cheltenham instead because they'll make more profit that way. But that kind of thinking will end up damaging the very quality of life that people move to Cheltenham to find.'

'Cheltenham Borough Council must take every step possible to support the extension and protection of the Green Belt.'