HUGE swathes of rural Yorkshire are at risk of inappropriate development due to proposed Government policy changes, campaigners have warned.
The Yorkshire Wolds are the most threatened area in the entire country and local politicians could be left powerless to resist major housing development, unless new policies are revised, according to the Campaign for the Protection for Rural England (CPRE).
The organisation says the Government’s draft National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) seeks to remove a formal acknowledgement that the countryside is inherently important, and say it would therefore give legal protection only to areas with a particular designation, such as formal Green Belt zones.
That would mean local decision-makers may struggle to stop what they see as inappropriate development on their doorsteps, the CPRE warns.
In a report being published today, the organisation says the Government’s move could threaten areas around York, where much of the Green Belt will be undefined until a local plan is adopted.
It also says areas of riverbank west of Knaresborough would be in danger, and says East Yorkshire is particularly at risk.
The report says that out of all UK Parliamentary constituencies, East Yorkshire is most at risk, despite having gained fame in recent months as “David Hockney Country”, due to the artist’s work on the Wolds.
The area is not designated as an area of outstanding natural beauty and the report says that if the local council could not show it had enough land earmarked for housing for six years, then it could struggle to block housing plans.
It warned: “If an application was submitted for development on the edge of a major Wolds village, unless the draft NPPF is amended, there could be an extremely strong argument in favour of approving it.”
All councils have been working towards formal adopted local plans, concerning their future development, but only 42 per cent of such plans are likely to be ready by March.
The CPRE said in those areas without one, the NPPF would place a presumption in favour of sustainable development, even if it is not what is wanted locally.
The CPRE is calling on the Government to explicitly recognise that the countryside is important as a whole and to promote development that minimises intrusion into the countryside.
Land move praised
ON the face of it, Britain’s green belts have never been safer. Builders are still reluctant to invest in new housing and home buyers continue to be as rare as hen’s teeth.
But there is a ticking time bomb. The population is growing and sooner or later new houses will have to be built. Builders say brown field sites are no longer of interest and that can mean only one thing.
The Campaign to Protect Rural England has today issued a report outlining its concerns for the green belts and cites East Yorkshire as especially vulnerable.
They are right to do so. We have always said brown field sites must be used wherever possible, because once gone, our green belts will be lost for ever. They should only be built upon as a last resort.
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