Green Belt in Danger

3.15.52pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 2nd Mar 2005

David Ward discusses the problems of the UDP with Lib Dem Councillors Riaz Ahmed and Jamal Ali

Councillor David Ward has requested a formal public inquiry into the modifications to the Council's Replacement Unitary Development Plan.

He is calling for a public inquiry due to criticism of the Council's failure to carry out a review of the Green Belt or an Urban Capacity Study. This failure has led the planning inspector to declare that there are now exceptional circumstances which allows him to remove land from the Green Belt without public debate. This is because the Council has failed to provide sufficient land for housing.

David Ward said

"The Inspector has, without the benefit of public debate, made changes to major strategic assumptions about how and where Bradford should locate land for housing throughout the District. This represents a significant change to the strategic nature of the Unitary Development Plan.

This significant change has had a profound impact on the effect of the Replacement Unitary Development Plan in Idle, Greengates, Wrose and Thornbury. Local people are effectively being denied the opportunity to participate in any public debate about these changes that fundamentally affect the place where they live.

The Council seems to be taking an approach where they will just roll over and accept these major modifications without comment. It seems to me that this is being done to avoid the Replacement Unitary Development Plan being subject to even more stringent checks by avoiding assessment under the European Union Directive on Strategic Environmental Assessment. If the plan is not rushed through by July 2006 then the replacement Unitary Development Plan would also have to consider, in the light of this new Directive, the significant environmental effects of implementing the plan.

To not allow people across Bradford North and the District as a whole to have their say on matters of such importance causes a breakdown of trust between the Council and local people. To allow such modifications without allowing a public debate renders the Replacement Unitary Development Plan as being fundamentally flawed.

These significant changes should be the subject of a full public inquiry. There should be a proper review of the Green Belt, an Urban Capacity Study and a full public inquiry undertaken before any modifications are made to the Green Belt. There is sufficient legal precedence set that should land be removed from the Green Belt now it is unlikely ever to be returned to the Green Belt. This is a battle that local people cannot afford to lose."