www.southglosfoe.org.uk
Vine Cottage,
01454-416778 housing@southglosfoe.org.uk
PRESS
RELEASE
PHOTO OPPORTUNITY
Petitioners object to housing proposals
Angry campaigners and
local Councillors will be demonstrating at 2, Rivergate, Temple Quay, Bristol BS1 6EH on Tuesday 29 August 2006 at 11am against
proposals to expand Bristol by 40% in the next 20 years. Campaigners will
gather outside the building with placards and banners to save the green belt
and stop the building plans. They will be handing in several petitions against
the South West Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) [1]. The petitions will be
handed to the Planning Inspectorate team [4] at
Campaigners and local Councillors are angry because they fear the loss of open
spaces in the City and green fields around the built-up area. They claim all
such spaces will be at risk of becoming building sites if the Strategy goes
ahead. They are also worried about the extra traffic on roads that are already
jammed at peak hours. [2] [3]
The RSS [1] proposes
92,500 homes and corresponding offices, warehouses and other developments for
jobs in the West of England, i.e. the former
This growth compares
with about 8,000 dwellings in Bradley Stoke, about
170,000 dwellings in the City of
Friends of the Earth
campaigners will be joined by campaigners from other local groups and local Councillors for the protest. Alan Pinder, spokesman for
Friends of the Earth, said, “It is not just us objecting to these proposals.
Lots of normally quiet groups are very upset that these proposals have got this
far without the Regional Assembly, backed by the government, listening to what
local communities really want. All they have listened to is developers who see
rich pickings.”
Alan Pinder said it had been easy to get signatures for the petition. He said, “We wanted to tell people about the plans, because these things don’t to get noticed by most people when the decision is made. When the bulldozers move into our favourite bits of open space there will be a lot of anger, but it will be too late. When we told people about the plans, almost everyone wanted to sign; probably only about 1 in 20 people did not agree with us. We have never had a petition that so many people supported. These plans are very unpopular.”
Alan Pinder said, “If these plans go ahead,
every scrap of open space in
Friends of the Earth have
collected 1465 signatures for their petition. Other local groups and
individuals have also been organizing petitions, and they will be handing
theirs over at the same time. The petitions will be handed to the Planning
Inspectorate team [4] at
The Friends of the
Earth petition calls for less growth, protection of the green belt and a
quality not quantity vision. The words of the petition are:-
We, the undersigned, oppose the
South West Regional Assembly plans to impose high growth on the South West, and
to build over 90,000 dwellings in the former Avon area. This will destroy our
greenbelt and significantly reduce our quality of life. We need a
quality-not-quantity option, available for public consultation, which:
-
preserves the existing greenbelt boundaries
-
keeps new building within the existing urban
area
-
limits further house building to existing
brownfield sites
-
gives the highest priority to affordable
housing
-
invests in improvements to local public
transport
For further
information please contact
Notes:
[1] Draft Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS), June
2006,
http://www.southwest-ra.gov.uk/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=836
[2] “How much growth for
[3] “Growing within limits”, briefing on
the South West Regional Plans, South West Friends of the Earth, August 2006:
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefing_notes/sw_rss.pdf
[4] South West Examination in Public, http://www.southwesteip.co.uk
[5] South West Regional Assembly, http://www.southwest-ra.gov.uk
[6] West of