The District Council has now produced a statement outlining how much housing development it wants to see in future years. You can download it here. (102kb).
A lot of residents hoped that when the previous Labour government left office, our Conservative council would listen to local voices.
They expected the Conservatives to reduce the amount of green belt that would be swallowed up .
We think they are going to feel very let down.
There is a lot in this statement to read.
But the key point is this – the Conservatives seem to be keeping all the development sites they has previously supported, and just stretching the building process out over a longer period. All of the green belt sites that residents have been trying to protect and the council wants to develop are still likely to be built on.
In fact the council is now proposing a very small INCREASE in the amount of houses to be built in the Green Belt – instead of 2785 units by 2025, there will be 2791 by the year 2031.
Of course , once land is taken out of the Green Belt, it’s very hard to protect it again. Wouldn’t it better to let future councillors – in 2025 – make decisions on what housing is needed then rather than have councillors and council officers try to guess things now 15 or 20 years in advance?
Why is our council so keen to press ahead with all this?
I couldn’t gt your link to work but this may;
http://cmis.rochford.gov.uk/CMISWebPublic/Binary.ashx?Document=17221