PEOPLE who object to proposals to build thousands of new houses on green are being urged to have their say before it’s too late.
The latest version of South Gloucestershire’s Local Plan, which outlines where the authority believes development should take place over the next 15 years, is out for consultation until April 11.
The plan includes proposals to allow a major development on the former Shortwood Lodge Golf Club, 2,000-plus homes next to the M4 north of Lyde Green, 65 homes on part of the Hayfields base of Cleve RFC and 150 homes on land next door owned by Taylor Wimpey, some of them on sites currently in the Green Belt.
The protest group Save Our Green Spaces South Gloucestershire (
) believes that housing on the scale proposed would put unacceptable pressure on roads and other infrastructure.
It organised a meeting at Mangotsfield’s Pomphrey Hill Pavilion in March, attended by about 70 people, at which residents expressed concerns that traffic delays on the A4174 ring road were already lengthy, even before any more homes were built.
Martin Thomas, of SOGS-SG, who lives in Siston, said that the group was not against all housebuilding, but felt that areas east of Bristol were being asked to take a disproportionate amount of the homes that are estimated to be needed.
SOGS-SG chair Darren Lawrence said the consultation was residents’ last chance to influence the Local Plan.
He said: “It is not a done deal. Make sure you have your say.”
Emersons Green town councillor Abi Cohen told the meeting the aim should be to amend the Local Plan rather than reject it.
He warned that without a Local Plan in place, there was little councils or local people could do to ensure that developers funded necessary facilities such as schools and medical centres and transport improvements alongside building the new homes.
SOGS-SG has been holding workshops to help people respond to the council’s consultation. The final one takes place at St Anne’s Church Hall, Oldland Common, on April 5 from 1pm.
Responses will be passed to the government’s planning inspectorate for review before hearings next year.
Launching the consultation, South Glos cabinet councillor Chris Willmore said: “We accept that not everyone will like everything in the Plan; some of the decisions we have had to make have been very difficult. We share local people’s passion to protect the character of the places they love to live. But we would be doing those people and the next generations a disservice if we simply tried to put up a roadblock to any new building.”
The plan can be viewed and commented on at the consultation website, localplan.commonplace.is, until April 11.
Anyone who is not online can call 01454 868009 for help.