Green Party Councillors Lucy Bywater and Ben Foley (Castle ward) are strongly opposing Government proposals within the Planning for the Future White Paper which set out major changes to the planning system, billed as the biggest shake up of planning since the second world war.
The proposals would include compulsory targets for house building, and new zones including ‘growth’ and ‘renewal’ zones that would trigger automatic planning permissions without further community consultation.
Lucy said: “As town centre councillors, we’re really aware of the desperate need for quality and genuinely affordable homes for people near to where they work, as well as vital issues around sustainability and the need for green spaces.
“The proposals would undermine local democracy, are vague about sustainability and do little to address the serious shortage of genuinely affordable homes.”
Ben said: “We would love to see improvements to our planning system but these proposals are a missed opportunity. There is hardly any mention of the climate emergency, the importance of green space and affordability which local people tell us really matter.
“Instead there are binding housing targets that would lead to a free ride for developers and a raising of the threshold for the requirement to provide affordable homes in new developments.”
At the recent Bedford Borough full council meeting there was cross-party agreement among councillors opposing the Government’s proposed changes and it was agreed, at Ben’s initiative, that the Chief Executive would write to parish councils to urge them also to take part in the Government’s consultation.
Lucy went on: “We have put in a consultation response, including input from CPRE, Friends of the Earth and RIBA and we hope that the Government is listening and is ready for a rethink.”
She has also written to Bedford MP Mohammed Yasin and both councillors have added their names to a CPRE/Friends of the Earth letter to Secretary of State Robert Jenrick, calling for a planning system that is democratically accountable, delivers sustainable development, affordable homes, builds community cohesion and a healthy environment.
The controversial Government consultation on planning reform has just closed and is believed to have attracted an unprecedented number of responses. The Government is expected to decide on the way forward in 2021.
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