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The Government,
through The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, set up Regional Assemblies
to prepare strategies for various regions looking ahead to 2026.
In our
area the South West Regional Assembly (an unelected body based in Taunton) has been
considering various matters including massive new housing development. They
have requested East Dorset District Council carry out a comprehensive
review of green belt land which could be used for housing development.
East
Dorset District Council has identified 5 “urban
extensions” as these green belt sites are
called. East Dorset District Council were the only authority to include
site specific plans as part of their submission to the Regional Spatial
Strategy.
We
feel as concerned residents that land designated as green belt should
remain as such and never be used for housing.
It is vitally important to retain green belt around
urban areas for the wellbeing of local people, wildlife and ultimately to
prevent the increase in urban sprawl.
Loss of green belt adversely affects the environment
and once gone is gone forever.
The S.W.R.A. submitted the draft Regional Spatial
Strategy to the Secretary of State at the Department for Communities and Local Government on 24 April 2006 and it
included these 5 sites. A 3 month
public consultation period and a review by an Independent Panel was
completed on the 6 July 2007 and their report stated that a increased
number of 48,100 houses should be built in this region (Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch Joint Study Area). This was
confirmed recently by the Secretary of State (22 July 2008) who declined to
change these proposals. A 12 week consultation period will run until 17
October 2008 to allow interested parties to comment on the changes made to
the RSS by the Secretary of State.
East Dorset District is expected to absorb 6,400 new
homes outside the main conurbations, 2,400 of this number on land which is
currently green belt. This ignores the current lack of adequate
infrastructure for the existing population (which includes roads, schools,
doctors and dentist, hospitals, Post Offices etc..).
Visit the South West
Regional Assembly’s website to get an in depth understanding of the The Regional Spatial Strategy
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