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Countryside Charter delivered to Downing Street
CPRE Kent Chairman Christine Drury was part of the delegation handing in CPRE’s 80,000 strong petition to save the countryside into Downing Street last week (17th June).
Over the last two years 80,890 people signed the Charter which has now been left with the Prime Minister. Support for the Charter came from all over the world as it is widely recognised that England’s countryside has a unique and special character that must be protected.
Christine Drury said: “Thank you to the many people in Kent who signed the Charter. Members and non-members alike supported these important demands to the Government: brownfield first, more listening to communities and more housing in the right places.”
Over the last two years 80,890 people signed the Charter which has now been left with the Prime Minister. Support for the Charter came from all over the world as it is widely recognised that England’s countryside has a unique and special character that must be protected.
Christine Drury said: “Thank you to the many people in Kent who signed the Charter. Members and non-members alike supported these important demands to the Government: brownfield first, more listening to communities and more housing in the right places.”
Here are some of CPRE’s campaign successes :
Building on brownfield land first
- We created a map of more than 400 ‘wasted spaces’ in towns across England supporting our research that revealed at least one million homes could be built on suitable brownfield land to help regenerate our towns.
- We influenced the Government to give incentives worth close to £1billion to boost building on brownfield sites by creating new housing zones and regeneration funds.
- We won a commitment to the establishment of a statutory register of brownfield sites, announced as part of the Queen’s Speech.
- We secured new planning guidance asking local councils to accelerate the redevelopment of brownfield sites.
More housing – in the right places
- Our local groups across the country have supported well-designed development that meets local needs and have fought off inappropriate developments that threaten precious countryside.
- For example, CPRE Gloucestershire supported a well-designed housing scheme in Stroud, and CPRE Durham successfully fought off plans for 3,550 houses in the Green Belt, saving precious countryside. These are just two of our hard-won, local victories.
A fair say for communities
- Through our network of local groups we’ve helped dozens of local communities to develop Neighbourhood Plans. And we’ve worked to strengthen support for them in planning decisions, giving people more say in shaping development where they live.
- We helped persuade the Government to reconsider its plans to make it more difficult for communities to make a legal challenge on a planning decision.
We now want the new Government to make a firm commitment to protecting the countryside by clearly prioritising the use of brownfield over greenfield land in national planning policy. We need to go on working in every part of England to defend our countryside from the wrong kind of development.
22nd June 2015.
- A number of important documents have yet to emerge. For example, a rigorous transport plan and a finalised air-quality assessment. The latter is critical given that allocations at Teynham will feed extra traffic into AQMAs.
- There seems to be no coherent plan for infrastructure delivery – a key component of the plan given the allocations being proposed near the already crowded Junction 7.
- There seems to have been little or no cooperation with neighbouring boroughs or even parish councils within Swale itself.
The removal of a second consultation might have been understandable if this final version of the plan were similar to that being talked about at the beginning of the consultation process. It is, however, radically different in the following ways:
- There has been a major shift in the balance of housing allocations, away from the west of the borough over to the east, especially around the historic town of Faversham. This is a move that raises many concerns.
- A new large allocation, with accompanying A2 bypass, has appeared around Teynham and Lynsted, to which we are objecting.
- Housing allocations in the AONB around Neames Forstal that were judged “unsuitable” by the council’s own officers have now appeared as part of the housing numbers.
- Most of the housing allocations being proposed are on greenfield sites, many of them on Grade 1 agricultural land – a point to which we are strongly objecting.
Concerns about the rush to submit the plan
The haste with which the plan is being prepared is especially worrying given the concentration of housing in Faversham. If the town is to take a large amount of new housing, it is imperative that the policies concerning the area are carefully worked out to preserve, as far as possible, the unique nature of the town. The rush to submit the plan is likely to prove detrimental.
As Swale does not have a five-year land housing supply, it is open to speculative development proposals, many of which would run counter to the ideas contained in the current plan. Some are already appearing. This is a common situation, and one that, doubtless, is a reason behind Swale’s haste.
Our overriding fear, however, is that this emphasis on haste is ultimately going to prove counterproductive. This is because it is our view that the plan, in its current form, is unlikely to pass independent examination. We are urging Swale to listen to and act upon the comments being made about the plan and to return the plan to the council with appropriate modifications before submitting it to the Secretary of State.
Essentially, this means treating the current consultation not as the final one but as the ‘lost’ second consultation.
The consultation ends on Friday 30 April and we strongly urge residents to make their opinions known if they have not already done so.
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