Cheltenham MP condemns planning policy

SPEAKING today (Sunday) at Liberal Democrat party conference in Birmingham, Martin Horwood will speak out against the proposed reforms to the planning system contained within the draft National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

Martin will warn that the government’s record on the natural environment will be put at risk if the policy goes forward unamended. A range of green organisations, including the National Trust and the Campaign to Protect Rural England, are already galvanising opposition to the new draft planning policy.

Addressing a fringe meeting of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Martin will say “The Localism Bill and the Natural Environment White Paper were important steps towards greater power to protect the natural environment at local level. That was so far, so good for the ‘greenest government ever’. But George Osborne’s proclamation that the default answer to development should be ‘yes’ pointed in exactly the opposite direction. I’m afraid that the National Planning Policy Framework seems to confirm the worst fears of green organisations in this respect. It looks to me like a developer’s charter.”

Locally, environmental organisations including Save the Countryside and the Leckhampton Green Land Action Group have expressed fears that the new NPPF will do as much damage to green spaces around Cheltenham as Labour’s old Regional Spatial Strategy.

Martin added “We had all hoped that these campaigns were won when the coalition was formed but it seems as though the fight isn’t over yet.”

County buries Parkway bid

GLOUCESTERSHIRE County Council today submits its final bid for government money for the ‘Integrated Transport Elmbridge Court’ or ITEC scheme – and it doesn’t include the controversial plan for a Parkway station on Green Belt land near the Elmbridge Court roundabout between Cheltenham and Gloucester. Cheltenham MP Martin Horwood, who has been campaigning against the Parkway plan since 2005, welcomed the news: ‘This is a very sensible move by the county. I’m delighted that the Parkway plan has been quietly but finally laid to rest. The station threatened the future of Cheltenham Spa station and would have meant Cheltenham having to drive down the A40 to catch the train. It would have been bad for Cheltenham, bad for the environment and bad for rail travellers.’

The plan for improved roads and public transport initially attracted all-party support but became controversial in 2005 when a business plan was produced that made clear the case for the Parkway station element of the scheme was based on a reduction of services at the existing Cheltenham Spa and Gloucester stations. The plan was supported by then Gloucester Labour MP Parmjit Dhanda and by the county council’s Conservative administration. But Cheltenham Tories and many rail users from Gloucester as well as Cheltenham soon backed Martin’s campaign, as did high profile figures like Jonathon Porritt. Martin urged the county to switch its attention to other rail improvements like the redoubling of the Swindon-Kemble line.

In 2007 the Department for Transport rejected the scheme which has since been redrafted without the Parkway station element. The second and final part of the bid is being submitted to government today. There was a brief resumption of the campaign when then county councillor, now Euro MP, Julie Girling., said she thought the Parkway bid could be revived at a later stage. But today’s bid effectively means it is dead and buried.

‘We thought we had won this campaign some years ago’ said Martin ‘but it is reassuring to know that it’s really over now. The joint campaign for the redoubling of the Swindon-Kemble line succeeded this year as well and just shows what we can achieve in Gloucestershire when we work together.’

CHELTENHAM MP backs further amends to Health Bill

CHELTENHAM MP Martin Horwood is to back further amendments to the government’s Health and Social Care Bill which is being considered again by the House of Commons today and tomorrow. Lib Dem MPs Andrew George and Greg Mulholland and Green MP Caroline Lucas have tabled a series of amendments addressing remaining concerns about the bill, including the power of the Secretary of State to provide – as well as secure - healthcare and the promotion of collaboration and integration in the health service as well as competition.

Martin met Lib Dem health minister Paul Burstow today to discuss the bill and to explain his own amendments to the bill on the status of public health within the new NHS.*

More than a thousand amendments are already being made to Conservative Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s original draft of the bill, following opposition at the spring Liberal Democrat conference in Sheffield and from campaigners and health professionals.

Martin commented: ‘The Lib Dems have already questioned and challenged Andrew Lansley over this bill and produced some important changes. There are more safeguards against cherry-picking of profitable services by private companies, the promotion of competition by the regulatory body has been replaced with promoting the interests of patients, GPs are no longer going to be in sole charge of local healthcare commissioning and that can never be passed on to private companies.’

‘But I am nevertheless prepared to support further amendments, if they are put to a vote, to put beyond doubt the right of the secretary of state to provide – as well as secure – a comprehensive health service and to make clear that integration and collaboration are more important to the NHS than competition. My own amendments are designed to prevent the fragmentation of the public health profession which is currently part of the NHS but which will be transferred to local authorities under the new bill.’

‘I have received significant reassurances from Paul Burstow that protections against privatisation, cherry-picking and excessive competition are already much stronger in the revised bill but I’m also very aware of the significant concerns of many of my constituents, including health professionals, and would be happier to see a belt-and-braces approach to these issues. The bill was always going to guarantee the continuation of healthcare provided free at the point of delivery and funded by the NHS and I’m not afraid of private providers like those we have now in Gloucestershire such as Sue Ryder and the Cobalt charity. But I cannot see the harm in further strengthening the bill’s protections against more predatory competition’.

‘If we don’t achieve these amendments over the next couple of days in the House of Commons, I hope similar ones will be made in the House of Lords when the bill moves forward.’

CHELTENHAM MP to join ‘super-injunction’ inquiry

CHELTENHAM MP Martin Horwood has been appointed as one of the two Liberal Democrat members of the joint parliamentary committee set up in the wake of May’s ‘super-injunction’ row. During May this year media attention focussed on a series of so-called ‘super-injunctions’ issued by courts to celebrities and others trying to protect their identities from the tabloid press. Former Formula 1 president Max Mosley, disgraced banker Fred Goodwin and Premier League footballer Ryan Giggs are amongst the famous names who have struggled to keep various aspects of their private lives out of the tabloids, some seeking and using so-called ‘super-injunctions’ under which the media are prevented from reporting not just the actual issues but even the existence of a legal dispute.

The row came to a head when Lib Dem MP John Hemming named Ryan Giggs in Parliament, putting clearly into the public domain what millions of Twitter users had already discovered. Furious arguments ensued over the right to privacy, the liberties of parliament, the courts and the media and the balance between free speech and personal privacy.

The joint parliamentary committee of Lords and MPs is being established with a brief to investigate how the laws on privacy and super-injunctions are working in practice, how a balance can be struck between privacy and freedom of expression and how best to determine the public interest in such cases. Other members of the committee include Exeter Labour MP and former minister Ben Bradshaw, retired bishop Richard Harries and Stratford Tory MP Nadhim Zadawi. The other Liberal Democrat member will be Jane Bonham Carter, Baroness Bonham Carter of Yarnbury, a former BBC producer whose great-grandfather was Liberal Prime Minister Herbert Asquith.

The first meeting of the committee will be on Thursday, 8 September.

Martin commented: ‘It’s an enormous privilege and a responsibility to be appointed to such a high profile committee. This issue touches on our civil liberties, our right to privacy, the freedom of the press and the right of the courts not to be bullied by MPs – and vice versa. It’s a controversial field and full of strongly conflicting viewpoints. I am trying to approach it with an open mind. As a Liberal, I’m obviously conscious of the importance of defending hard-won freedoms, including freedom on the internet but I do think people have a right to a private life and we need to guard against the abuse of power by rich news organisations as well as by governments.’