Charlotte Atkins is right to express concerns about the government’s planned overhaul of the planning system (Personally Speaking 2nd August).
There is no question, as she highlights, that they will result in a reduction in the number of affordable homes built. Equally worryingly they will remove the voice of the community from conversations about town planning.
The changes to the planning system will, if they go ahead in their current form, have an environmental impact that could be potentially disastrous.
Under the new rules the green belt will be awarded ‘protected’ status, which is good, although what qualifies a site for inclusion in the green belt is sometimes an elastic concept.
There is a real risk that smaller green spaces may zoned in the ‘renewal’ or ‘growth’ categories. Meaning that developers will, in the first case, only have to comply with minimal checks and in the latter will be subject to no scrutiny at all.
As a result, many smaller green spaces could be approved for development without proper consideration being given to the environmental impact of going ahead.
This could remove vital wildlife corridors that join up natural habitats that have already been fragmented by decades of poorly thought-out development. The almost certain outcome of this would be the speeding up of a decline in biodiversity that has been gathering pace since the 1970’s.
An example of the sort of site where a scenario of this type could play out is the plans to build 85 homes on land to the North of Bradwell Hospital, which involves felling some well-established trees.
Local people are, entirely reasonably, far from happy about this because they understand the impact it will have on a green space they value and their quality of life due to things like a likely increase in noise pollution and have organized a campaign to make their voice heard.
This is exactly the sort of grassroots opposition to badly planned development the government is seeking to stamp out through changing the planning system to give all the power to developers.
There is no suggestion that Seddon Homes want to have anything other than a mature and measured conversation with residents in Bradwell. Hopefully one that ends with the trees being recognized as an asset rather than a hindrance to the development and protected for generations to come to enjoy.
A less scrupulous builder though could see the new rules as green light to build whatever they like, wherever they like, thinking about nothing apart from turning a short-term profit.
At a time when climate change is, as the Met Office warned last week, close to running out of control, is something we could all live to regret.
Yours Sincerely,
Adam Colclough.
The proposals for the site are still open for comments from residents and other concerned parties, details can be found here.
Ref: 21/00470/REM.