South Gloucestershire | Archive | 2006 | March | 17
From the archive, first published Friday 17th Mar 2006.
SOUTH Gloucestershire Conservative councillor Matthew Riddle joined Regional Assembly rebels last week when he refused to support proposals for 92,500 new homes in the former Avon area.
The Severn ward councillor, a South Gloucestershire representative on the Assembly, said the threat to the Green Belt and chronic traffic congestion made it impossible for him to back the plans which include more than 20,000 homes in South Gloucestershire.
He said after the meeting in Exeter: "I could not possibly support or endorse a plan that would put at risk vast swathes of South Gloucestershire's countryside and risk deeply wounding incursions into our Green Belt.
"It would be reckless in the extreme to sign up to taking these houses when we have no idea what the implications are for the Green Belt or for our already congested transport system.
"We must await the review of the Green Belt, which I hope will provide the evidence we need to make a really robust defence of it."
Cllr Riddle said it was unacceptable that the Assembly wanted to determine where houses were built in South Gloucestershire.
"This is a decision which should rest with locally accountable councillors in South Gloucestershire, not bureaucrats in Exeter.
"The final decision about what happens to South Gloucestershire's Green Belt and house-building plans must rest with the council because they can be held to account by residents for their decisions."
© Newsquest Media Group 2008