MEDIA RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday 29 November 2017
For further comment please call Neil Sinden on 07496 805354 or Alice Roberts on 07792 942 691
New London Plan will help make better use of wasted space but will it stop councils like Hounslow build over 100 hectares of Green Belt
Campaigners applaud focus on ‘best use of land’ but call for more action to protect and enhance green spaces
Campaigners at CPRE London (1) today (Wednesday) welcomed the new London Plan published in draft today (Wednesday).
Neil Sinden, Director of CPRE London said: ‘We are encouraged by the policies it proposes to make more efficient use of low-rise, low density industrial estates and the firm commitment to protecting the Green Belt and Metropolitan Open Land. Making more efficient use of land and protecting London’s precious green spaces were high on our list of priority areas for the new plan.
‘But at a time when Hounslow Council is proposing to build over Green Belt land the size of some 150 football pitches[2], the proof of the plan will be in what the Mayor does to pursue these aspirations. He needs not just to oppose applications for development adversely affecting Green Belt but to challenge emerging plans by London Boroughs to allocate Green Belt for development –such as the alarming proposals in the draft Hounslow West of Borough Local Plan.
Neil Sinden continued: ‘While welcoming recognition of the importance of the Green Belt, we are disappointed at the lack of measures to enhance the quality and value of London’s green spaces. Too many parks, for example, are damaged by noise pollution – second only to air pollution in its damaging impact on human health. We would like to see a much higher priority given to tackling noise and a strategic approach to protecting and enhancing a network of places of relative tranquillity to help make London a more liveable city.’
ENDS
NOTES FOR EDITORS:
(1) CPRE London www.cprelondon.org.uk is a membership-based charity with 2,500 members around London, which campaigns to save Green Belt, Metropolitan Open Land and other green spaces within Greater London, and to make our capital city a better place to live for everyone. We are a branch of the national environmental charity, the Campaign to Protect Rural England.
(2) https://www.hounslow.gov.uk/info/20034/planning_policy/1158/west_of_borough_plan_review Hounslow council’s West of Borough Local Plan Review proposes allocating 8 Green Belt sites totalling 101 hectares for development (including two very large sites of 44 and 25 hectares each). There are also plans for a further 9 hectares of green space to be developed.
Alice Roberts
Head of Green Space Campaigns
CPRE London
07792942691
