Here is a copy of my letter.
I strongly support the CPRE campaign to
minimise the damage to our productive and beautiful countryside,
under Government proposals more than half of it would not be
adequately protected from development.
Green Belts, National Parks and Areas
of Outstanding Natural Beauty make up about 40% of the English
countryside. I welcome the commitment to retaining special
protections for these areas. But here in Somerset we are also
concerned about what the Wildlife Trust calls Living Landscapes. I
am concerned that the Government’s reforms to the planning system
through the National Planning Policy Framework will remove protection
for these important areas of the countryside. Currently, countryside
is protected for ‘its intrinsic character and beauty’ but its
also vital for its role in enabling the production of food,
maintaining the quality of the air we breath and the water we drink.
This policy of protecting the quality
of the open countryside has been in place for decades and has been
supported by successive governments during times of growth and
recession. It doesn’t prevent all development but it has helped
ensure that ordinary, though valuable, countryside is not
unnecessarily lost to speculative development.
For almost 20 years there has also been
a requirement that previously developed land – otherwise known as
brownfield land - should be developed before green fields. The
Government is also proposing to abandon this policy. Yet, a new
report commissioned by the Campaign to Protect Rural England,
Building on a Small Island, demonstrates that the supply of
previously developed land is actually increasing, including in high
demand areas, and that England has previously developed land suitable
for providing 1.5 million new homes. I know that some previously
developed sites can be important for wildlife but surely these can be
protected without scrapping the brownfield-first policy altogether?
Protecting the countryside and building
on previously developed land go hand in hand. Time is running out to
persuade the Government to think again. I gather that Ministers are
currently considering the final changes to be made to their new
planning policies.
Please raise my concerns with the
Planning Minister, Rt Hon Greg Clark MP, and urge him to ensure that
the National Planning Policy Framework makes it absolutely clear that
the countryside as a whole needs continued protection, and that
building on previously developed sites first should remain an
important planning priority.
Yours sincerely
