Campaigners welcome green belt move

The new administration has announced that it will scrap Regional Spatial Strategies, which were intended to set targets for new homes and preserve green belt areas.

Preparations for the Core Strategy, Rotherham’s own housing masterplan based on the Regional Spatial Strategy, caused an outcry last year when it emerged that 24,000  houses could be built, including more than 3,000 on the borough’s green belt.

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Protest groups were formed in Ravenfield, Greasbrough and Maltby to battle the plans, which prompted more than 5,000 objections during a two-month public consultation.

Rotherham Borough Council said this week that it would wait for official guidance from Whitehall before deciding the way forward for dealing with long-term housing needs in the borough.

The coalition’s Programme for Government reads: “We will rapidly abolish Regional Spatial Strategies and return decision-making powers on housing and planning to local councils, including giving councils new powers to stop ‘garden grabbing.’

“We will maintain the green belt, Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) and other environmental protections and create a new designation—similar to SSSIs—to protect green areas of particular importance to local communities.”

Campaigner Michael Sylvester, of Wingfield, said: “I would like to welcome the new government’s policy programme, which states that the new government will scrap Labour's regional spatial strategies that led to ridiculously high housing targets for Rotherham that in no way reflected local need. 

“Similarly, the coalition programme for government makes a specific pledge to protect the green belt.

“This commitment means that the plans to release large areas of green belt for building, particularly the Bassingthorpe Farm wedge between Masbrough, Greasbrough and Rawmarsh, are dead in the water.

“The council should stop all work immediately on their proposals to save time, effort and council tax, and look to start a sensible discussion on local housing need.

“Once assessed any future development should be sustainable looking at using Rotherham's large brownfield sites and supporting areas that have seen substantial population decline.

“Considering the way in which many local people felt the council had tried to push the plans through on the quiet and felt their views did not count, I would call on the council to put in place a full scrutiny review of why so many local residents felt left out and only heard of the plans for their area at the very last minute.”

A council spokeswoman said that they were aware of the government's proposals but did not yet know what they would mean in practice.

“We need greater clarity from central government before we can say what targets would apply in Rotherham and which development sites would be needed to meet the targets,” she said.

“Guidance is also needed on how to replace all, or part, of the strategic planning policies that are currently in the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Spatial Strategy.

“Any eventual new targets will require community consultation, in addition to the currently planned consultations on Rotherham's Core Strategy and potential employment and housing sites scheduled for later in the year.”