‘Simply appalling’: CPRE Kent responds to proposed planning changes

Countryside charity urges country doesn’t turn its back “on the environmental protections that are essential for our local communities and ecosystems”

CPRE Kent, the countryside charity, has given a blistering response to the government’s latest proposed changes to planning policy.

Director Dr Hilary Newport said: “We are dismayed at reported government proposals to revert to the discredited ideas of easing so-called ‘restrictions’ to planning and to reversing the moratorium on fracking.

“In response to the disastrous proposals of the Planning White Paper of 2020, the whole CPRE network came together, leading a coalition of 18 organisations, and produced an alternative Vision for Planning in 2020.

“These proposals would have seen the establishment of ‘growth zones’ where planning permissions would be pre-agreed with no local democratic comment or intervention. These plans were quietly dropped in response to the public and political outrage. With the now proposed investment zones being at least as bad, if not worse, than the previously proposed growth zones, it is simply appalling that the government is now seeking to reverse this decision.

“Moreover, the decision to rip up the election manifesto promise of 2019 to place a moratorium on fracking is a shocking dereliction of evidence and public opinion.

“As a knee-jerk reaction to escalating fuel prices, it is wholly wrong-headed and will do nothing at all to lower UK fuel costs for homes and businesses; all it will do is provide a green light for making profits at the expense of local and global environmental destruction. We must break our dependency on fossil fuels sooner, rather than later.

“It is imperative that, regardless of the severity of the economic crises of the moment, we do not turn our back on the environmental protections that are essential for our local communities and ecosystems, and vital for the future of the whole planet.”