The Beaconsfield Society Update January 2020

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.

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. 

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-donate-now/  or on our JustGiving page at https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/beaconsfieldsogb 

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 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.