It has been a long haul but the campaign to save our green belt by objecting to the building of over 90K houses in our area reached its climax last month. The 30th of August was the deadline for submitting comments on the SW Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) – the document which proposed this level of new building - to the EIP (the Government Panel which will be reviewing the Strategy). Members of the Group picketed the EIP offices in Central Bristol on 29th August and, together with three other concerned groups, formally handed in our petition with good press and TV coverage of the event. We were very proud to be able to submit the largest petition with over 1,400 signatures representing, not only the high level of concern amongst local residents, but also the hard work done by members in collecting signatures – no mean task when it takes up to three minutes to collect each one!

The other really good news is that, as a result of pressure from our Group, South Gloucestershire Council has agreed to set aside a significant amount of money to challenge the housing figures in the RSS. Our Council is not comfortable with the housing numbers proposed, believing, as we do, that while a reasonable growth is desirable, the numbers proposed would be quite unsustainable and would detrimentally impact our environment and way of life.

We can now relax a little but the campaign will gain fresh impetus next April when the results of the consultation phase will be available so we must be prepared for more action at that stage.

Denise Thompson

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