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PRESS RELEASE

Public meeting wanted less building on green fields

Future large-scale building in what is now green fields was the subject of a public meeting hosted by Friends of the Earth (FoE) and CPRE on Wednesday evening at Winterbourne. The audience heard about how plans are now being drawn up for development in the whole South West region, and particularly round Bristol, for the next 20 years.

The audience of about 70 gave its biggest cheer when Jon Buckingham of FoE said we had been offered a choice of lots of growth, more growth or even more growth and asked why we could not just stay as we are. Members of the audience said they had not heard anything about the public consultation that was apparently held in the winter.

Panellist Roger Daniells, Director of the Joint Strategic Planning and Transportation Unit, said that no decisions had yet been made. He said there would be further consultation in June and July.

Other members of the panel called for changes in housing policy. MP Steve Webb said that the Government wanted to reduce house prices by building thousands more, but a parliamentary all-party committee had been very critical of this approach. Marilyn Palmer of CPRE said that we could not build our way out of increasing house prices, and that we need subsidised rents for those who could not afford to buy.

Mike Birkin of FoE said that there was a lack of democracy in the planning system and that the government was demanding high growth as the condition for investment. He said there was plenty of empty housing in the north, and the development is needed there. The idea of the green belt was to contain the city, so moving the green belt out from Bristol defeated the whole idea.

The audience was invited to sign a petition to call for no more expansion of the existing built-up area. They were also asked to write to MPs and to the Deputy Prime Minister.

Afterwards Alan Pinder of FoE said “There is a lot of opposition out there to concreting over more green fields. People value their trees and fields and see no need for more destruction. The consultation was a farce, and those who want this development are completely out of touch.”

Photographs of the meeting are available on the South Gloucestershire FoE website at www.southglosfoe.org.uk/events/save_our_greenbelt.

For further information contact Alan Pinder on 01454-416778.