UPDATE 4th June
Things have moved quickly since the Barry Road application was rejected in May. The new government is in the process of scrapping the Regional Spatial Strategies, so that Local Councils no longer have to take them into consideration. As South Gloucestershire Council’s recently published Core Strategy does not include any proposed changes to the Green Belt on the eastern fringe, we are fairly certain that developers have little chance of challenging that position in the short to medium term. This is great news for Oldland Common and other surrounding areas that have been under threat for the past year or so.

Many thanks to the thousands of people, both local and further afield, who have supported our campaign. Particular thanks go to Anne Upton and her committee for organising us all and keeping us informed throughout the long process. We also acknowledge the help of Chris Skidmore, our new MP for the support he has provided. Chris has been true to his word throughout and since his election has pushed for the quick abolition of the RSS. Click here for recent example letter: letter

******

Welcome to the Save Oldland Common Green Spaces Web Site.  We are working hard to make the Government understand that we do not want any building on our greenbelt.  We want out wildlife saved, our air clean, our kids to be able to enjoy the countryside. We could do with as much support as possible so if you feel as passionately as we do come and join us.

Check out what we're doing on our Events page!
 For details of the application click here
 


We would like to say a big thankyou for their generous support to :

Steve Pursey and his wife of Oldland Post Office for all their help

and

Harry and Jason of Jeeves Stores for their kind donation of £500  

BELOW ARE THE AIMS OF THE GROUP.


Our Immediate Feelings are:

Everyone who lives in South Gloucestershire knows that if the number of houses that the Government is trying to force upon us goes ahead, our quality of life will be lost forever. We like being able to see green fields all around, not feeling hemmed in, feeling part of a rural community. We like seeing tractors pass through our village. Seeing swallows and swifts flying so close to the ground in search of stirred up insects is one of our joys. We will not be able to pass on the fields we know and love to our children and their children for their enjoyment.

We strongly oppose the overall level of growth proposed.

We question the need for 23,000 additional houses in South Gloucestershire during the period up to 2026.

We point out that some of our newer communities (such as Bradley Stoke) already have social infrastructure deficits (congested roads; shortage of local school places; lack of shopping facilities; community facilities etc) and if the rate of growth per annum is doubled it is hard to see how the accompanying infrastructure will keep pace and this will bring economic and social problems.

We note that despite the proposed level of growth, the only acute hospital in South Gloucestershire (Frenchay Hospital) is to be closed and a new hospital built in Bristol.

We are very concerned that the rural character and distinctiveness of villages such as Oldland and Bitton will be damaged if urban extensions are allowed to extend into the Green Belt.

As the majority of additional housing is proposed to be accommodated south of the M4 we believe that it is vital to protect the existing communities and to avoid coalescence – the character of our historic villages must be preserved and they must remain as distinct settlements.

• 17,500 homes in the part of the Bristol urban area in South Gloucestershire
• 10,000 homes on the edge of the existing urban area of Bristol to create two new 'urban extensions', including 2,000 homes on land which is currently green belt along the M32 and 8,000 homes on green belt land to the east of the ring road
• 3,000 new homes on greenfield land at Yate/Chipping Sodbury
• 2,300 homes in other towns and villages across the rest of South Gloucestershire
• Taking areas out of the green belt to accommodate new development
• No expansion of the green belt north of Thornbury and Yate

Our Long Term Aims are:

(1) To persuade the Government of the health and well-being gained from green spaces and the agricultural advantages of keeping the Green Belt intact, both for the present and for future generations.

(2) To persuade the Government to adopt a more pro-active role in encouraging the use of empty properties.

(3) To persuade the Government to re-develop brown-field sites, nationally as well as locally, to fulfil the need for affordable housing/housing before considering using Green Belt or green field sites.

(4) To question the Government growth figures and therefore their claim that 3 million homes will be needed by 2026.

(5) To ensure more stringent planning controls to secure both the inner and outer borders of the Green Belt, in order to stop continual speculation by developers and landowners.

(6) To encourage the elected Local Council to support the wishes of the local people in planning matters and not to be over-ruled by the Government. 

 Our Principles and objectives

We believe that the official consultation process was flawed.  Very few people know what was going on until we came along.  With this in mind we did our own consultation and published the results on May 7th 2009 at Kingswood Civic Centre.  Over 300 people were interested enough to come and listen not only to our results but to the many speakers we had.  ( See events page for more details and photos)

We have now linked with lots more groups inthe South West from as far down as Cornwall and reaching up as far as the Midlands. We know that with all groups linking we will get the Government to notice us.

We have also had lots of press coverage and support from our local MP. We were lucky enough to form a working party that is commited to the aims above and who work hard to inform as many people as possible of our plight. We have managed to hand in 15000 petitions to Downing Street, deliver 350 forms to the RSS offices and helped more people to fill in their opposition forms on line. We are growing larger every week with Oldland, Shortwood, Ashton Park, Whitchurch, Long Ashton and Dundry coming on board.

Our campaign will continue until we have completed our aims.