Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury It has come to light recently that our ‘greenest government ever’ is hell bent on selling off as much land for development as possible and for removing planning restrictions to make it easier to concrete over our green and pleasant land. The government’s draft national policy statement waters down existing legislation that protects ancient woodlands, precious wildlife and beautiful landscapes. All this so that more major roads can be built when all traffic surveys show that there is consistently static numbers of vehicles on the road since the maximum numbers were reached in 2002. It seems that the desire to build to satisfy the construction and the motoring industries comes without any sensible regard for the real needs of the country.
Hidden away at the bottom of this bill is permission for the government to sell off any public land it wishes and to therefore remove public access and use. This is to be done by transferring public land into the hands of the government’s Homes and Communities Agency which can then sell off anything it chooses without any need to obtain anyone’s consent or to consider any liability. What price our footpaths and public rights of way? We see all around us our councils continuing to build houses on prime agricultural land instead of using available brown field sites for our much needed homes. All we need to do is look at Ireland to see what happened when regulation was removed and a housing bubble disorganised the economy and the land.
