GREEN BELT IS EASY TARGET

I WRITE in response to the Scribbler’s article (‘Utilise brown sites for housing’, October 4) about the Council’s proposals for building up to 500 houses in Edenfield.

I apologise for taking so long to reply but I have been away.

The Scribbler highlights the Council’s Plan to site almost 500 new houses on Green Belt land in Edenfield and he rightly observes that this would drastically change the character of the village.

He also mentions that there is substantial opposition to this Plan in the village in that he saw posters and banners in many windows demonstrating opposition.

We know why Edenfield has been targeted, because for the Council and a major developer, it is easy.

A firm bought a large plot of Green Belt land alongside the by-pass about three years ago and so the Council has a willing, if not downright enthusiastic developer who is extremely keen to start building.

Why would they want to build on Brown Field land with all its difficulties?

The Scribbler goes on to pose the question, if not Edenfield then where should these houses go to meet the government imposed target, and continues saying there must be Brown field sites available so that Green belt can be preserved.

The Council has said that there is not enough such land available to provide space for sufficient houses and employment sites.

However, since this dreadful plan first came to light we have been looking at the council’s list of Brown Field sites, which it has to maintain as part of the planning process, and have found that it is far from complete.

We have discovered a number of such sites that the Council appears to be unaware of and which provide quite enough land to obviate the need to use Green Belt land in our village.

It should not be forgotten that

Government guidelines state that Brown Field land should always be used first with Green Belt as a last resort.

The Council has clearly ignored these guidelines.

We should add that whilst the Scribbler was writing his column the “Public Examination” of the Council’s Plan was being conducted by two Government Planning Inspectors at Futures Park.

At the end of the three-week long process the Inspectors decided that they were unable to reach any decisions about the Plan as they did not have enough information from the Council and have made out a detailed list of what they require the Council to provide.

We await the outcome. Paul Bradburn Edenfield Community Neighbourhood Forum