GREEN Belt campaigners are planning a walk to raise awareness and funds for their fight against new housing developments.
Members of Save Our Green Spaces-South Gloucestershire (SOGS-SG) will be holding the event as part of the Community Planning Alliance’s National Day of Action for Nature, Parks and Green Spaces on April 18.
The announcement comes as government inspectors confirmed when a public examination of South Gloucestershire Council’s draft Local Plan, which proposes sites for more than 22,000 homes in the district over the next 15 years, will take place.
SOGS-SG will hold a fundraising walk on April 18 starting at 11am from Warmley Station Waiting Room Café. The walk will take in Warmley Forest Park and Siston Common, before arriving at the old Shortwood Golf Course, near Mangotsfield, where 1,600 new homes are proposed to be built in the Local Plan, at around 12.15pm.
A spokesperson for the group said: “The purpose is simple: to demonstrate, visibly and collectively, that people everywhere care deeply about the natural world and want to see it protected and restored.
“South Gloucestershire Council’s Local Plan proposes to build many thousands of new homes on Green Belt at Emersons Green, Shortwood, Warmley, Oldland Common, Bitton and Hanham, with neighbouring authorities also planning huge developments around Saltford, Keynsham, Hicks Gate and Brislington.
“If all of these developments are given approval then our green belt and open spaces will be severely impacted.
“SOGS-SG are extremely concerned about the impact that mass housing developments will have on our semi-rural communities and villages.
“Our infrastructure simply cannot cope with housing on this enormous scale.”
The group says the council’s current plans are flawed because the council’s own data shows three times the number of potential jobs in the north of the district than in the east, where most new homes are proposed, potentially adding thousands of extra daily car journeys on the already congested A4174.
The Planning Inspectorate has announced that it will hold 15 days of hearings to examine the council’s draft Local Plan in public in the council chamber at Kingswood Civic Centre, between May 19 and July 16.
Each set of hearings will be held over three days between Tuesday and Thursday, with one in May and the rest in June and July.
SOGS-SG have employed a planning consultant to represent the group at each day of the hearings.
They are aiming to raise £15,000 towards their representation and had raised more than £7,000 as the Voice went to print.
The fundraising page is at gofundme.com/f/sogs-sg, and more details of the walk can be found on the SOGS-SG website and Facebook page.