Can Ware and the Environment cope with more houses and people?
Land East & North of Ware
Green Belt land North & East of Ware has been allocated for a mixed-use development of 1500 homes. The Green Belt was established in 1955 to stop urban sprawl, but the Conservatives are allowing increasing development in Hertfordshire’s green belt as part of their plan to suburbanise the London to Cambridge corridor. Green Party policies on the green belt are clear and unambiguous:
The farmland and woods to the north of Ware are a beautiful part of our green and pleasant land. The woods, hills, rivers, and meadows are a resource for us all. Generations of Ware residents have enjoyed walks across these fields, have played there as kids, and watched crops grow and wildlife thrive as the seasons came and went. Now that’s all under threat from developers’ greed putting profit over people and the places they love. It’s time for a counter-attack.
The Green Party will make it easier for communities to block the wrong type of development. The planning system is based on a presumption in favour of development, which loads the dice in favour of speculative developers seeking high profits. We will repeal this presumption and replace the current National Planning Policy Framework with spatial plans that preserve ecological habitats and prioritise council house building on brownfield land. A new developer’s duty will ensure that a greater share of the profits that are created when new homes are built goes back to the local council, to be spent on planning new council homes and accessible green spaces for the community. We will strengthen existing Green Belt planning protections, prohibiting all inappropriate development. The Green Party has never, and never will, accept funding from commercial vested interests.
Nicholas Cox says:
Tom Day says: