Green belt Villagers set out their opposition to housing proposals

PEOPLE living in Whitchurch were expected to pack into a public meeting last night to discuss their response to new plans which would effectively join them to the city.

- Tristan Cork [e-mail]

A B&NES Council map outlining possibilities for development around Whitchurch. The yellow fields are ones which the council planners would have a low impact on the Green Belt, then orange and light blue, with dark blue having the most impact.

Bath and North East Somerset Council has published a new draft of its long-term plan for house-building, and included options which residents say could see as many as 5,000 new homes built around Whitchurch Village, on the A37 out of south Bristol.

The new B&NES local plans document outlines how huge amounts of new housing development will have to take place on green belt land, and tells residents that the Labour government has brought in new policies that could allow that in the future, especially on what it describes as ‘low quality’ green belt land known as ‘grey belt’

In the Bristol-to-Bath corridor, which takes in Whitchurch, Hicks Gate on the edge of Brislington, Keynsham and Saltford, the council’s draft plan has a range of locations and a range of options which, if all new homes that are suggested are built, would see a total of 12,630 built - or given planning permission - in the next 10 years.