Beaconsfield Together - January / February 2020 Issue

COMMUNITY NEWS
Save our Green
Belt - News from
Beaconsfield Society
The main local issue on everyone’s minds
continues to be the threat to our green belt
and The Beaconsfield Society’s Save Our
Green Belt Campaign continues apace.
After the third and final consultation over the
summer, in September the Local Plan was
submitted to the Planning Inspectors for
“examination”. The Planning Inspectors have
recently raised many questions with the district
councils concerning the preparation of the Plan
and are following up on the councils’ failure so
far to make public full copies of all consultation
responses. The Councils have been pressing for
an early “Hearing” of the Plan but they must first
respond to the Inspectors’ questions.
We are raising funds to pay for this, so please
support our campaign by donating towards the
cost of the experts’ fees. You can donate via our
website at http://www.beaconsfieldnow.org.uk/
save-our-green-belt/save-our-green-belt-donatenow/or
on our JustGiving page at https://www.
justgiving.com/crowdfunding/beaconsfieldsogb
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Once the Inspectors are content with the councils’
answers, the Inspectors will draw up a list of
“Matters, Issues and Questions” to be examined
at the Hearing which could last 2 – 3 weeks. At
that Hearing, which is rather like a court case,
The Beaconsfield Society’s barrister and Planning
Consultants will attend to put forward our strong
case against the Plan.
Donations are urgently needed as the councils
are pressing ahead with the Plan rather than
waiting to allow the Unitary Council to deal with
this in a strategic, holistic, county-wide way from
April 2020.
The Local Plan would release c. 111 hectares of
green belt for development of c. 1600 homes,
20,000sqm of “employment” space and a
travellers’ site. With the district councils’ own
experts predicting rises in travel times and
congestion of over 400% and increase in the
districts’ carbon footprint of 21%, the Local Plan
is nothing but deleterious for the area. Moreover,
many developers are pressing for the release of
even more green belt land in Beaconsfield for
development. The Local Plan would also see
Altons Carpark zoned for retail use. Even the
Town Hall, Beacon Centre, garden centre, and
Warwick Road carpark are listed as suitable by
the councils for further development, as are car
parks in Gerrards Cross.
Please look out for up-dates on our web-site
www.thebeaconsfieldsociety.org.uk and our
Supper & Quiz Night coming up in February.
Beaconsfield Together is part of Community Together