Minutes 398 - 403 THE MINUTES
OF THE GENERAL MEETING Held on
in committee Room 20,
Present:
Mrs T Villiers
MP (President)
Mr R Smith, Vice-President (Potters Bar Society)
Mr C Hoptroff, Chairman (Leighton
Buzzard Society)
Mrs J Habib,
Treasurer (Chiltern Society)
Mr R Liffen,
Assistant Secretary (Carshalton-on-the-Hill Residents Association)
|
Ms L
Abbott, Bexley Civic Society Mr P
Miner, CPRE National Office Mr T Harrold, CPRE Mrs G
Hein, CPRE Mrs G
Oliver, Mr P
Barker. Mr S
Smith, Mr A
Walker, Epping Society Mrs A Swinson, Hatch End Association Ms H Stainer, Hedgerley Parish
Council Ms H Raeder, Ickenham Residents Association Mr P
York, Mr M
Coupe, |
Mr R Krystofiak, Northwood Hills Residents Association Mr P
Ward-Lee, Old Coulsdon Residents Association Mr C
Beney, Open Spaces Society Mr M
Maurice, Pinner Association Dr D
Slater, Radlett Society Mr R
Peel, Ramblers Association – Kent Area Mr P
Rogers, Sevenoaks Society Mr G
Quantock, Mrs M
Raymond, Stanmore Society Mr H
Courts, Stanmore Society Mr J
Archer, YHA Mr J
Randall MP (Uxbridge) |
Apologies Mr L Holt (Secretary), Mr D Gauke
MP (Vice-president), Mr B Selwyn, Brindles Wood Residents Association, Denham
Parish Council, Iver & District Countryside
Association, Otford Parish Council, Mill Hill
Residents Association and Wilmington Parish Council.
Matter arising from previous minutes
372(4)
Bentley Priory
Mr Rogers reported that a large article on Bentley Priory and some other
redeveloped MoD sites appeared in the Sunday Telegraph of 27 January.
388(4) Tottenham Hotspur Mr Archer said that the revised application
had not been called in and permission had been granted. Mr S Smith said that legal action against the
decision had been contemplated but he did not think anything had come of it.
392(2) Green Arcs Mrs Habib said that
the North West Green Arc had not received the hoped-for grant from Natural
England. They were hoping for funding for a research worker to prepare a GIS
survey of the area and establish who owns what and what might be improved. Mr Harrold added
that the South West Green Arc had not really taken off –probably also for
funding reasons.
395(c) Natural England Policy on Green Belts The Vice-President had
written twice to Natural England taking issue with their emerging policy on
landscape quality in relation to Green Belts and their countenancing a full
review of Green Belt policy. The text of
the correspondence will be in the next issue of ‘Notes’. The second reply from Natural England had
been more conciliatory but it remains to be seen what comes out of a meeting on
13 February at which their policy will be further considered. The result of the meeting will be available
on the Natural England website. The
President said she would write to Ministers asking them to disown the
unacceptable elements of the Natural England policy and steer them in the right
direction. Mr Coupe said that the
National Trust had indicated a willingness to buy up some Green Belt land as a
way of avoiding development. The
Chairman agreed with the suggestion that the Natural England position had its
roots in the old Countryside Agency, recalling that LGBC had crossed swords on
the subject with the Agency in the past. Mr Miner said that LGBC needed to
state its position publicly.
395 Proactive presentation of LGBC The Chairman said he had
been approached by a journalist preparing an item on the Green Belt and the
need to provide more houses in the South east, for a programme on the London
ITV channel. Unfortunately, the item was
not proceeded with. The Chairman had
also written an article rebutting the arguments of the RTPI
but had not yet found the right organ to publish it.
The
Treasurer said that LGBC had the funds to produce some leaflets to supply to
member organisations for distribution to their members. Mr Coupe suggested that LGBC approach the
National Trust who had indicated a willingness to buy up some Green Belt land
as a way of avoiding development.
Item 398 Treasurer’s Report The Treasurer
reported that 72 members had paid up and subscriptions were still coming
in. The funds in the bank stand at just
below £8,000.
Item 399 President’s Remarks
The President said she was very
concerned about the Natural England policy on Green Belts and hoped she could
influence the Government’s attitude towards it.
She was also concerned about the transfer of some planning powers from
locally elected people to the Regional Development Agencies. The President agreed with a suggestion by Mr
York that planning powers should be re-devolved to the County Councils.
Item 400 The Planning Bill 2008 The Vice-President reported that he had written to the
President setting out the LGBC concerns and she had passed these on to the
relevant Minister. On the Bill
generally, the letter objected that it gave too much power in sensitive
planning matters to an unelected body. The Bill would not clearly require the
Infrastructure Commission to respect local plans; its powers ought therefore to
be subject to closer democratic control.
More specifically, the Bill deals explicitly only with Green Belt land
falling under the 1938 Act. Most Green
Belt land does not; it is a creation of policy circulars and local plans. The Bill should make clear that it does not
apply to Non-1938 Act Land.
Mr Miner said that CPRE had objected to the Bill along
similar lines and they had MP’s support.
He added that CPRE were also concerned about proposals which would allow
Local Planning Authorities to make anything at all permitted development.
Item 401 DCLG Consultations on Call-in of
Planning Applications The Chairman said the Department was
consulting on a new Direction specifying when local planning authorities must
refer applications to the Secretary of State so that the she can decide whether
to call them in. At present only about
5% of referred cases are called in and one objective of the proposal is to
reduce the number of referrals. Its
other objective is to have a single Direction covering all call-ins; at present
there are several covering different reasons for calling in. As far as Green Belt is concerned the
criteria for referring an application to the Secretary of State would stay the
same; that is to say the application would have to be either for a building
with a floor space of more than 1000 m2 or for some other
development with significant impact on openness. It was agreed that LGBC need not comment on this
proposal.
Item 402 South East Regional Plan Mr Harrold said that while the initial draft of the Plan from
the South East Regional Assembly broadly supported maintaining the present
Green Belt, the report from the Examination Panel proposed a much larger number
of housing units (31% for Guildford) and this would involve substantial
encroachments on the Green Belt. The Government
is finding it difficult to respond to the Panel report and their response is
not now expected until March.
Mr Harrold said that there was a
need to defend the Metropolitan Green Belt and Surrey CPRE are mounting a
campaign to publicise the threat to the Green Belt, stressing that it is there
as much, if not more, for residents of built up London as for communities in
the Green Belt. The campaign will include a flyer sent to all elected
representatives, a press release and website feature, attendance at the Surrey
County show to hand out leaflets, a petition and an event at the House of
Commons. He hoped that it would be possible
to collaborate with LGBC on the campaign.
It was generally agreed that cooperation would be desirable and the Vice
President, Chairman, Treasurer and Assistant Secretary will meet to consider
this together with producing promotional material for the London Green Belt
Council. Mr Beney stressed that that
these were two distinct issues. The
Vice-President asked if anyone could provide a list of media contacts who LGBC
could keep informed.
Item 403 Officers reports on new business
1. The Chairman said he and the Vice-President
had met an Italian researcher who was working on a green belt for
2. The Vice-President had received a letter from
Mr Selwyn in which he suggested that LGBC ought to have a permanent address
which does not change when the officers change.
It was decided not to pursue the idea as it was difficult to see how
such an address could be provided without tying LGBC to some other organisation
in a way that might not be desirable and members were not aware of any
significant difficulties that had arisen from the lack of a permanent address. It was suggested that the LGBC E-mail address
should be included in the letterhead.
3. In his absence, the Secretary subsequently
reported in writing that he had objected to applications for:
(a)
Residential development at
(b)
Residential development at
4. Mr Liffen said
that an application had been made on behalf of the Plymouth Brethren on the
site formally owned by the British Industrial
Biological Research Association to the East of Woodmansterne
Road, Borough of Sutton. In addition to a meeting hall, the proposal is for
houses, a large car park with turning space and a new access road. The site is not designated as a major
developed site but the Council is proposing to make it so. Carshalton-on-the-Hill
Residents Association has objected to the application.
THE DATE OF THE NEXT MEETING
The next meeting will be on