Mangotsfield councillors and residents have handed hundreds of petition signatures to the Leader of South Gloucestershire Council in defence of the local Green Belt.
The petitions are in response to a planning application for 180 new houses on Green Belt land at Cossham Street in Mangotsfield.
The developers – Taylor Wimpey UK – have submitted the plans on the back of the government’s controversial Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) that calls for 32,800 new houses to be built in South Gloucestershire through a series of sprawling ‘urban extensions’ on Green Belt land.
Efforts to scrap the RSS are being stepped up in an effort to discourage speculative planning applications, which have followed the government’s confirmation that its RSS planning blueprint has ‘substantial weight’ in planning terms – even though it is yet to be finalised.
Conservative councillors for Rodway ward, which includes Mangotsfield, Adrian Millward and Kevin Seager said:
“It is the continuing existence of the RSS that convinces some developers that they can push through damaging Green Belt planning applications like the sort that we are seeing in Mangotsfield.
Traffic is already a significant problem along Cossham Street and other nearby roads and this development will only make the problem worse and cause more misery for residents.”
Cllr John Calway, Leader of South Gloucestershire Council, added:
“Local councillors and residents have told me about the strength of feeling there is about this planning application and so I was pleased to receive their petitions and written representations on this important local issue.
The council will continue to push Ministers to scrap their unpopular Regional Spatial Strategy so we can deter speculative and unsustainable planning applications that are all about contributing to the government’s ludicrous 32,800 housing target.”
The planning application will be considered at a meeting of South Gloucestershire Council’s Development Control (East) Committee on 18 February.
Source: Conservative Group on South Gloucestershire Council
