South Gloucestershire | Archive | 2005 | October | 14
From the archive, first published Friday 14th Oct 2005.
SOUTH Gloucestershire's precious green spaces could disappear under a tide of concrete if regional planners press ahead with plans for yet more homes, local Conservatives have warned.
Tory members on South Gloucestershire Council have attacked a proposal from the South West Regional Assembly that another 7,500 homes should be built in the former Avon area on top of the 92,500 already being considered by the four local councils which make up the area.
Conservative planning spokesman Cllr Ian Smith said: "I'm very concerned by suggestions from the Regional Assembly that our area should take even more development than the frightening figures already being talked about. They're talking about another 7,500 houses which is equivalent to another Bradley Stoke.
"It will further intensify the threat to our Green Belt and countryside." He added: "Everyone who lives in South Gloucestershire knows our infrastructure, especially transport, is buckling under the weight of development we have already seen and to be suggesting we should take even more is a terrifying prospect."
Cllr Smith said transport proposals for the area were not sufficiently ambitious and development on the scale proposed would bring the whole area to a standstill.
"We believe that the quality of life of all our residents is under serious threat from this tide of concrete which if unchecked threatens to devastate our countryside and environment.
"I do not believe that the Regional Assembly, in producing this proposal, has any idea of how precious the environment is to people in South Gloucestershire or how so many residents' quality of life has suffered from previous relentless development."
Pledging to resist all attempts to inflict more development on the area, Cllr Smith said: "For us the defence of the Green Belt remains the absolute priority because it is our only defence against being swallowed up in an urban sprawl of Greater Bristol, which would devastate local communities in its path."
Earlier this year Conservative councillors won support for their motion to South Gloucestershire Council to make the defence of the Green Belt "pre-eminent" in its planning decisions.
© Newsquest Media Group 2008