Campaign Stage 2 update
| Published: 16th March 2008 16:47 |
HELP STOP THE GREEN BELT MEGALITH!
Campaign stage 2
Dear constituent,
You may have received my letter last month warning of proposals from developers to build over most of the green belt in our area. Briefly, the proposals would involve most of the green space west of Castle College all the way to Bardills, and extend further north to the edge of Bramcote village You can find a map of the proposals online at www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/cdplanningsuesbrief2.pdf .
I've had a huge response, with over 2000 letters of support for my campaign to stop the proposal in its tracks, and well as 100 volunteers to help spread the word about the need for the campaign. The next stage is to ensure we get a hearing early enough to influence the proposals before they firm up, and I'd like to ask for your help.
I've asked for a meeting with the consultants doing the study of the proposals to brief them on the practical issues that constituents have raised. They have so far refused, saying they have explicit instructions "not to consult any local politicians". The instructions come from the unelected body
Nottingham Regeneration Limited
Shire Hall, High Pavement, Nottingham NG1 1HN
who are essentially local civil servants working on assessing potential housing developments for the local councils. Their plan is for the consultants to do an assessment of the proposals by the end of March, after which concrete proposals can be put forward for public consultation.
What's wrong with that? Two things:
• It's a very tall order for a London-based firm to complete a study of the entire Greater Nottingham area in six weeks without missing important issues. People who live here know the traffic congestion, waterflow, flooding, infrastructure and environmental problems intimately, and there is a great deal of local expertise in many of the letters that I've received. I understand that technical consultants don't want to sit through some political harangue - but they need to be sure they know the facts, and an ostrich policy of refusing even to listen will simply discredit the process.
• Once the technical study is complete and concrete proposals take form, they become harder to stop. I'm confident that in the end the wilder ideas will get rejected by Broxtowe Council - but a great deal of time, money and unnecessary worry can be saved if the consultants hear about the snags now.
What I'd like to ask you to do is:
1. Write to Nottingham Regeneration Limited at the address above, politely asking them to allow their consultants to give me a hearing on your behalf.
2. If you've not already sent me a note to say you support my campaign, please send it now (see below). If you have email access, please sign up for my updates, so I can let you know as soon as there is further news. I also use the mostly non-partisan updates to inform and consult on other current issues.
Frequently asked questions:
Q. Has Broxtowe Council proposed these developments?
A. No - in fact they've not even received the proposals yet. They come from landowners and developers who hope to persuade the councils to let them build houses for profit.
Q. Doesn't Nottingham need new affordable housing?
A. Yes, it does. That's why the Government and local councils have proposed a new carbon-neutral eco-town in Rushcliffe, a development in Clifton, and other brownfield developments. I've also supported brownfield sites (like the old army barracks land at Toton) on which many current homes were built - but I won't support concreting over our green belt.
Q. Have you raised this in Parliament?
A. Yes - if you have email access you can see me raising it at Prime Ministers' Questions at
www.tinyurl.com/23bkvo
and the stress placed on the eco-town approach in the reply (don't worry about the heckling, that's standard at PMQ, I'm afraid!)
Best wishes,
Reply slip - please email to NickMP1@aol.com
or send to me at 23 Barratt Lane, Attenborough, Nottingham NG9 6AD (delete as applicable).
Name:
Email address:
Postal address:
I support/don't support your campaign to prevent massive development on the green area
I'd like/wouldn't like to get your email updates and be consulted on current issues like this
I can help/can't help to help deliver further updates to homes near me
Nick Palmer (Broxtowe Labout MP)
Community Comment:
Add your comment:
You will need to sign in to post a comment to this article. if you do not have an AboutMyArea account, you can join now for free.
