The District Council has submitted it’s Core Strategy for future housing etc to the government, and at some stage there will now be a public inquiry.
We are mildly surprised by this, as one of us had heard a rumour that our Conservative council was going to hold back on this until after the general election…..
its not it’s …
I was tired….
Anyway, don’t you mean it’s not ‘it’s’….
I thought the Tories, well our MP anyway said that when they win the next election, there would be less development on the agenda and so our council were going to wait until after the election? Or was this all a dream?
Caroline Spellman was quoted in the Echo today, stating that they will scrap house building targets if the Conservatives get in. The article talks about the proposed housing developments for Canvey.
Yes ST1 good spot. I saw it too. It is not on the Echo Web Site but I have typed in most of what the article said below.
Tory: We’ll Scrap Housing Targets Echo: 27 January 2010
A TORY shadow minister visited Canvey and promised to scrap government housing targets and stop hundreds of new homes being built on the Island.
Yesterday Caroline Spelman, shadow local government minister, spoke out while meeting campaigners opposed to Castle Point Council’s plans for 600 homes in the green belt.
However Julian Ware-Lane prospective parliamentary candidate for the borough warned scrapping targets would cause a shortage of affordable homes.
Mrs Spelman said : “Local councils are being forced to allow development on green belt, to keep up with unreasonable housing targets set by the Government. That would go out of the window if we were elected”.
I am running a campaign on my web site asking Hawkwell residents to write to Caroline Spelman to lobby her to change planning policy if she becomes Secretary of State and then dismiss the planning Appeal for The Christmas Tree Farm/Thorpe Road.
“RACE” is running the campaign on the Coombes Farm Appeal and they have also included this suggestion for residents on its latest newsletter.
Despite what Caroline Spelman said to the Echo on Monday her Office has been far more coy saying in an email to me “I can confirm that we are planning to launch a planning green paper next month which will contain all current planning policy. This will be available on the Conservative Party website when it is published.”
In the meantime some national house builders are reported to be lobbying Ms Spelman as well.
It will be interesting to see how the NEW 2010 Green Paper balances the industry lobbying against the promises of the last Conservative Green Paper in April 2009 which were about scrapping regional housing targets and promoting localism to meet actual local housing needs.
I smell fudge brewing somwehere which will disappoint many voters if promises already made are watered down or not delivered. The Hawkwell and Coombes Farm Appeals might turn into an early test in the life of a new government but first we have to get the pledges stated clearly.
Thank you for your email of 25th January about the incursion onto Greenbelt land in Hawkwell and Coombes Farm, Essex. I can assure you that should the Conservatives form the next Government we have pledged to abolish regional spatial strategies that place unmanageable housing targets on local areas which force inappropriate development. I have campaigned consistently to protect greenbelt from inappropriate development successfully fighting against a motorway service station and a marina in my constituency and introducing two Private Members Bills to change the classification of gardens from brownfield to greenbelt. We have pledged to make this switch should we get into Government. Thank you once again for your email.
Yours sincerely,
Caroline
Caroline Spelman, MP for Meriden
House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Tel: 020 7219 4189 Fax. 020 7219 0378
caroline@carolinespelman.com
Maybe if the developments are large enough in Rayleigh we will get our swimming pool. What about the cabinet members putting in a donation each on their salary increases? Would that not be a community spirited thing to do?
Mike, they will probably build all the houses in Rayleigh/Rawreth, then build the swimming pool in Rochford. Just like the country park that was a condition of the last lot of housing we got.