SOUTH WEST REGIONAL SPATIAL STRATEGY (No. 2)

Early day motion 2337, tabled 23 October 2008 by Martin Horwood (Liberal Democrat). Signed by 22 members.

That this House has no confidence in a South West Regional Spatial Strategy that allows the prioritisation of greenfield over brownfield sites, that is based on outdated projections of both housing market and economic growth, that takes no account of purpose built accommodation for students, that does not recognise the environmental constraints on development and has in effect simply implemented national policies and ignored widespread local opposition from across the region and from all parties and none and from parishes to parliament; notes that hon. Members have had no opportunity to debate specific details of the Strategy with Ministers or in regional select committees and were denied speaking rights at the formal examination of the strategy in public; further notes the specific threat to long-established Green Belt surrounding Cheltenham, Gloucester, Bristol, Bath, Bournemouth and Poole; further notes that while Ministers have repeatedly claimed that it is for local authorities to take the lead on the implementation of the Strategy, in practice they are powerless to stop developers already applying to develop greenfield sites and citing the site-specific maps in the Strategy in their defence; and calls on the Government to abandon the South West Regional Spatial Strategy or to urgently revise it to reflect democratically expressed local views, the environmental limits of development and the need to prioritise the development of brownfield sites before greenfield sites by reintroducing the sequential test.

Signatures by party: Liberal Democrat 20, Conservative 1, Labour 1.