CAMPAIGNERS who want to stop land being taken out of the Green Belt to allow thousands of new homes to be built have held a protest march.
Around 100 protesters marched through areas that could be transformed by new developments if a planning blueprint drawn up by South Gloucestershire Council is approved.
The protest was held weeks before the council’s draft Local Plan is due to undergo a public examination in front of a government inspector, to see if it meets the future housing needs of the district.
Members of Save Our Green Spaces-South Gloucestershire (SOGS-SG) held the joint protest and fundraising walk as part of the Community Planning Alliance’s National Day of Action for Nature, Parks and Green Spaces on April 18.
Different groups of campaigners walked with children and dogs, with some riding horses, from areas where new housing could be built if South Gloucestershire Council’s draft Local Plan is approved by the government.
They headed to the old Shortwood Golf Course, near Mangotsfield, where 1,600 new homes could be built under the Local Plan.
A public examination into the legal compliance and soundness of the Local Plan by a government-appointed inspector is due to start at Kingswood Civic Centre on May 19, with a total of 15 days of hearings held in three-day blocks on five separate weeks. The final hearings will take place on July 14 to 16.
The draft Local Plan proposes sites for more than 22,000 homes in the district over the next 15 years.
SOGS-SG says the east Bristol area is being asked to take too many of those homes.
The group used the walk to collect donations towards professional representation by a planning consultant at the Local Plan hearings – as the Voice went to print they had raised more than £10,000.
Chair Darren Lawrence said: “We’ve got to keep pushing.
“People feel they aren’t being listened to.
“It’s not about being radical – there’s no infrastructure to support homes in these areas.
“This isn’t ‘grey belt’, it’s Green Belt – we have to stand up and say enough’s enough.
“I’m absolutely overwhelmed with the support we’ve received on the march – we’ve also had a lot of support online.
“We’re facing the total destruction of the East fringe. We feel that if plans to build in all of the places proposed, from Saltford to Filton to Yate, happen we’ll end up with a mega-city.
“We’re not against housing but we are against mass housing on the Green Belt – there is an alternative.”
Among the proposals in the Local Plan are sites for 1060 homes in Warmley, 1,600 at Carsons Green, 2,000 in North Lyde, 280 in Shortwood, more than 800 in the Oldland Common area – including 300 at Barry Road – and 185 on two sites in Hanham.
Hanham and District Green Belt Conservation Society is working with a planning consultant on its submissions to the Local Plan hearing.
Details of Local Plan hearings can be found at localplanexamination.commonplace.is.
SOGS-SG has set up a website with details of upcoming planning applications and its donation page at sogssg.org.