York’s Conservative Group has called for urgent clarity on what City of York Council Planning Officers believe is the extent of the Labour government’s newly defined ‘Grey belt’.
Labour’s changes to the National Planning Policy Framework brought in a new term of ‘Grey belt’ which is land within the Greenbelt that compromises developed land and/or other land that does not significantly contribute to the primary purposes of the Greenbelt, such as checking the unrestricted sprawl of urban areas. It was suggested this definition would apply to an odd quarter of an acre plot enclosed by other developments or an old garage or car park which had no appeal, however there are fears the real reach could be far wider.
York officer guidance to date has broadly focused on the Grey belt being for small and not worth preserving bits of land. However a leaked briefing from Leeds Council says their Planning Officers believe an incredible 90% of the city’s Greenbelt could be now classed as Grey belt and therefore vulnerable to development. Now, some months after the definition of Grey belt was introduced, Conservatives believe there has been time for the potential impact to be assessed and this should be shared and if needed councillors should unite cross party to fight for our Greenbelt.
The Conservatives are calling for:
1. Clarity and openness on what, if any, briefings York’s Labour Executive has had on the likely impact of the Grey belt definition
2. A sharing of the knowledge and if there have not been briefings and an assessment of the impact for that to be commissioned straight away
3. All Group Leaders to indicate they will fight to protect York’s Greenbelt as set out in recently agreed Local Plan
Conservative Group Leader Chris Steward said
People will think of Leeds as being very different to York but on this it is not – there is an urban centre and then villages around – for example on Leeds east side the likes of Scholes, Bardsey, Scarcroft, Collingham and Wetherby. If Leeds planning experts believe 90% of their protected Greenbelt could actually be so called Grey belt this is a worrying alert for us. We know Labour is way behind on their 300,000 homes per year target and as they have no credible plan to deliver the homes it looks like they will simply hand an easy card to developer to develop all over our green fields rather than all important urban regeneration.
