Tobias Ellwood is to spend the next three weeks collecting 5,000 signatures from Bournemouth residents to protest against overdevelopment in Bournemouth.

A copy of the completed petition will be handed into the Town Hall, another copy will be sent to the South West Regional Assembly in Exeter and a third copy will be handed to the Speaker of the House of Commons for the attention of Ruth Kelly MP, Secretary of State for Local Government and Communities.

These three organisations have been targeted for contributing towards the overdevelopment of Bournemouth to the point of affecting its character;

• Bournemouth Borough Council has approved over 1,000 new dwellings every year for the last four years, far exceeding any obligation placed on the Council. Developers are getting away with building poor quality flats with no off street parking facilities due to the financial pressures faced by the council if applications fail and are appealed.
  
  
• The South West Regional Assembly is seeking approval to its plans for development in the South West which include around an additional 20,000 more homes in the Bournemouth area and legitimising the use of back gardens as locations for new housing developments. Despite this Bournemouth receives nothing from their annual £865m budget for infrastructure improvements.
  
  
• The Department of Local Government and Communities is ultimately responsible for Britain's housing policy and is placing pressure on the SW to build far more homes than elsewhere in the UK.

Development is rapidly outstripping community facilities and infrastructure. Bournemouth is seen as an easy touch by developers who target our town with so called 'infilling'. New dwellings are being built here at over ten times the national rate.
Commenting on the petition Tobias said:

"I hope this petition will act as a wake-up call to reflect how out of touch present planning policy is with people's concerns in Bournemouth. Unless we stem the tide of over-development we will permanently damage the character of our town.

Whilst I will do my best to collect as many signatures as possible, residents wishing to support this campaign are welcome to either email (ellwoodt@parliament.uk) or write to me directly ensuring they include their full address."

Conservative Policy

Should the Conservative Party win the next general election we will introduce legislation aimed at stopping privately owned back gardens, officially classified by the Government as 'brown field' sites, being concreted over for new housing and re-classify them as greenbelt.

We will also disband the SW Regional Assembly and hand powers back to local authorities.

Tobias Ellwood MP

House of Commons
London SW1A 0AA

Tel:
0207 219 4349
Email:
ellwoodt@parliament.uk