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.”