| Subject |
Dorset's
Conservative MPs demand
a rethink on regional housing development plans
|
| Ref |
PR/06-155 |
| Date |
30th
August 2006 |
Tobias Ellwood
MP has joined with Conservatives MPs in Dorset to lobby the South
West Regional Assembly to rethink housing development plans for
the South West.
In a written
statement Conservative MPs voice serious concerns over the Assembly's
Draft Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) which proposes the building
of over 2,600 homes every year in Dorset without major improvements
to an infrastructure which is already close to breaking point.
Tobias, Sir
John Butterfill MP, Christopher Chope MP, Robert Walter MP, Robert
Syms MP and the Rt. Hon. Oliver Letwin MP have all added their name
to the letter to the South West Examination in Public, the body
set up to test the draft RSS. The statement expresses the MPs' views
on the impact the RSS will have on their Dorset constituencies.
Tobias said:
"If approved
the RSS will give even more power to the undemocratic, un-elected
and unrepresentative South West Regional Assembly, and would have
far reaching consequences for Dorset.
Housing development
on the scale being proposed by the Assembly without any improvement
to our infrastructure will change the character of our county for
good. We would like see the Regional Assemblies, (which no one voted
for) disbanded and decision making returned to local authorities."
In addition
to this submission Tobias is collecting a petition of 5,000 signatures
from Bournemouth residents concerned about overdevelopment. Present
planning policy is resulting in over 1,000 new homes being approved
every year and does little to prevent developers from purchasing
back gardens for development with no consideration to the impact
overdevelopment is having on Bournemouth.
|
