Chris travels to Westminster and Downing Street




to lobby MPs to prevent building on Kingswood's green belt

Chris visited Westminster to attend a debate against the South West Regional Spatial Strategy. Along with local Kingswood campaigners Save Our Green Spaces in Warmley and Save Oldland Common Green Belt he later was part of a delegation handing a petition into Downing Street against the government's plans to build on the green belt.

Commenting on the trip, Chris said:

It was a real pleasure to travel to Westminster and join with campaigners from Warmley, Oldland Common, Shortwood and Dundry for the debate in parliament against the South West Regional Spatial Strategy and government plans to build on our greenbelt. We also made our views felt at the heart of government at Downing Street, as part of a united delegation handing in a petition with thousands of signatures (see picture attached). Congratulations to all those who were part of the delegation- the Save Our Green Spaces campaign, Save Shortwood Green Belt and Save Oldland Common Green Belt campaigns, pictured above, who are determined to preserve their local communities from being concreted over.

It was also welcoming to hear MPs of all poltical persuasion standing up to be counted and standing up against the government's unpopular and unworkable plans to place tens of thousands of extra homes on green belt areas protected by law, well and above what local councils insisted could be built, in areas where the local infrastructure- our road and rail networks, our hospitals and schools, our shops and ever fewer post offices- simply won't be able to cope. Other arguments that were put forward included the fact that these proposals are based on an increase in jobs and a year on year economic growth rate of over 3%. In our current economic climate, it is bizzare that the government persists with their now irrelevant Regional Spatial Strategy. Sadly, there was no sign from the ministers' response that he would listen to the concerns' expressed. It seems that the only hope to save our green spaces is now in the hands of the consultation process which will close on 24th October. It is vital that everyone does all they can to halt this process and delay the final decision until the next general election. This means filling out the official response form which can be found hidden away on the Government Office of the South West website- www.gosw.gov.uk. Alternatively, I have placed a downloadable copy of the form on the front page of the No Way to 33k campaign website- www.nowayto33k.com which anyone can access easily. We only have weeks to go, weeks in which we must generate as great a response as possible. It is neither too late to save our local green belt nor must we ever give up trying.